tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43923179216614141512024-03-13T09:41:24.767-04:00Heart for GodOf you my heart has spoken, "Seek his face."
It is your face, O Lord, that I seek. (Psalm 27)David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.comBlogger603125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-10698992904460557082022-06-07T15:34:00.001-04:002022-06-07T15:34:15.158-04:00<p> This issue is perhaps THE crucial moral battle facing historic Christianity in the present age. God's and His Word will not be mocked.</p><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Perspective on “Pride Month”</b><span style="font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Dr David L. Hall, General Minister</i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i>Heart for God Ltd.</i></b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(I have given some things emphasis with <i>italics</i>)</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Last year President <i>Joe Biden commemorated Pride Month</i> and signed into law a measure that designates the Pulse Nightclub as a national memorial. A mass shooting at the Orlando, Florida club in June 2016 left 49 people dead and 53 wounded in what was the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in U.S. history.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Biden also announced he is naming a special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">ensuring that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance <i>promote </i>and protect the <i>LGBTQ</i> rights around the world.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Pride Month” seems to be running at full throttle <i>this year</i>:</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">––Pizza Hut is promoting a book about “drag kids” in its reading incentive program aimed at children in pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade. The book “Big Wig” is a picture book for very young children and “celebrates drag kids,” according to the publisher’s website. A Pizza Hut email explained that the corporation’s reading program is promoting the book in honor of “Pride Month.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">––Mr. Misster, a gay bar in Dallas, TX, drew massive protests Saturday when it put on an event called “Drag the Kids to Pride,” a drag show specifically aimed at children. Promotions for the event explicitly called for minors to participate by dancing on stage. During the afternoon show, adult drag queens danced on stage and took dollar bills from kids. “It’s not gonna lick itself!” read a neon sign in the center of the room. After the event, the bar put out a statement accusing protesters of being “transphobic.” Local police told the media that they did not intervene other than to conduct “crowd control” amid the protests outside.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">––Several baseball players on the Tampa Bay Rays team refused to wear “Pride Night” rainbow logos on their jerseys. Pitcher Jason Adam said: “It’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who’s encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like (Jesus) encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. It’s no different.” </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those brave baseball players are an example of the faithful who take seriously what God has said in His Word….</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Rom 1:18–28, 32 (RSV)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>[18] For <i>the wrath of God is revealed</i> from heaven <i>against all ungodliness and wickedness </i>of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; [21] for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became <i>futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened</i>. [22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. [24] Therefore <i>God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies </i>among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and <i>worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,</i> who is blessed for ever! Amen. [26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their <i>women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, [27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. </i>[28] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. [32] Though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.</b> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gen 18:17–20 (RSV)</span>–– <b>The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, [18] seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? [19] No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." [20] Then the LORD said, "Because <i>the outcry against Sodom and Gomor'rah is great and their sin is very grave</i></b>, </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gen 19:1–13, 24,25 (RSV)</span> –– <b>Two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, [2] and said, "My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the street." [3] But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. [4] But before they lay down, <i>the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; [5] and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.</i>" [6] Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, [7] and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. [8] Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." [9] But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. [10] But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. [11] And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door. [12]Then the men said to Lot, "Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any one you have in the city, bring them out of the place; [13] for we are about to destroy this place, because <i>the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomor'rah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; [25] and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground</i></b><i>.</i></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Psalm 11:4–5a (RSV)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>[4] The LORD is in his holy temple,</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>the LORD's throne is in heaven;</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the children of men.</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>[5] The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked</b>,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Psalm 12:3–4, </span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-decoration: underline;">9 (Grail)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>They babble vanities, one to another,</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b> with cunning lips, with divided heart.</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>May the LORD destroy all cunning lips,</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b> the tongue that utters boastful words…</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>The wicked prowl on every side,</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b> while<i> baseness is exalted by the sons of men</i></b>.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Long ago the holy God unleashed His wrath against sin; only Noah and his family were spared. As the earth recovered…. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Genesis 9:8–17 (RSV)</span> <b>God said to Noah and to his sons with him, [9]"Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, [10] and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. [11] I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." [12] And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: [13] I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. [14] When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, [15] I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. [16] When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." [17] God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."</b> Today, <i>morally warped people have taken God’s covenant sign of the rainbow and turned it into a sign of perversion</i>.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hebrews 12:25–29 (RSV)</span> –– <b>[25] See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. [26] His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." [27] This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. [28] Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; [29] for <i>our God is a consuming fire</i></b>. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">1 Corinthians 6:9,10</span><i> </i>–– <b>Neither <i>the immoral</i>, nor idolaters, <i>nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, </i>nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such indeed you were. But you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. We were sanctified, he says, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Isaiah 5:20 (NLT)</span>…. <b>Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is especially grievous for Christians whose sensitivities have been tuned by the Holy Spirit to recoil at blatant sin: Ephesians 5:11–12… <b>Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret…</b>.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is grave warning for the time in the Church’s life when evil is called “good” and good “evil”….</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NLT)</span>…. [again, I have highlighted some descriptions in <i>italics</i>]</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For <i>people will love only themselves</i> and their money. They will be boastful and proud, <i>scoffing at God</i>, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will <i>consider nothing sacred.</i> They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and <i>hate what is good.</i> They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and <i>love pleasure rather than God</i>. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">2 Timothy 3:1-3(NLT)</span>…. [again, I have highlighted some descriptions in <i>italics</i>]</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, <i>scoffing at God</i>, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will <i>consider nothing sacred.</i> They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and <i>have no self-control</i>. They will be <i>cruel and hate what is good</i>.</b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From <i>No Option</i> by Anthony Esolen, <b>Touchstone </b></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px;">The churches are in a shambles. My church, the Roman Catholic, has slaughtered ten healthy practices of piety for every one it has invented, and closed ten schools or churches for every one it has built. The Protestant churches have lurched from orthodoxy, to liberalism, to unitarianism, to atheism or worse, a sub-pagan cult of Jesus as affirming every mind-paralyzing and life-destroying movement of our time; blessing the murder of children, the emancipation of women from womanhood, and the sowing of the seed of life in a sewer. The flood is upon us, and out comes the rainbow, not the one from God but the silly one from us, declaring that we know better than our creator, and if he remembers us, we will deign to accept the gift, but if not, that's all right, too.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px;">Teachers strive to overcome their ignorance by arrogance. They are proud to work against the parents. What do you call a grown person who is eager to show other people's children sex toys, or instruct them about things to do in bed? We call that person a pervert, or we used to. Our schools are thick with such people. Nor do teachers have any strong connection to the neighborhood, which is mostly silent and empty.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px;">Imagine hiring a plumber who spends his time, not fixing your pipes, but introducing your children to drag queens and warning them not to tell you about it. What would put your neighbor behind bars for corrupting the morals of a minor is not only done regularly in the schools, but defiantly. The family be damned.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are in treacherous times. Some Christians will be called to speak out. All Christians are called to turn away and reject anything that is blatantly in opposition to the character of God and how He has revealed Truth in the Scriptures.</p>David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-84630119435818177992020-12-06T13:08:00.003-05:002020-12-06T13:08:51.822-05:00PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD<p> <i class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Second Sunday of Advent</i></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD</b></span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">Isaiah 40:1–5, 9–11</span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">2 Peter 3:8–14</span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">Mark 1:1–8</span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Dr. David L. Hall, General Minister</span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">Heart for God, Ltd.</b></span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br class="" /></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">While I was associate pastor at the campus church in the early 1980s Messiah College invited former President Jimmy Carter to be their speaker for the inaugural address in an annual lectureship on religion and society. Months before the date of his coming the Secret Service was there to check security. From the college end, there were invitations and other publicity promotions done in preparation for such a big event. The actual day of Carter's arrival on campus revealed other preparations that had been made. The press and television news crews were there. Hundreds of cars were being directed to makeshift parking by what seemed to be an entire force of auxiliary police. Faculty were making their way to the processional line in their academic regalia. Secret Servicemen seemed to be almost everywhere with two-way radios in their hands.</span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class=""> Nothing was there that did not belong</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">. The President had come and everyone was prepared.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">The Scriptures today help us think about what it means for us to be ready for God's Son to come into our world. On this second Sunday of Advent we especially remember the Old Testament preparation for Christ's coming. As Christians, we know this has a double focus. Jesus came the first time, and we remember his incarnation at Christmas. Someday Jesus will come again, and we are called to live in preparedness for that second coming.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">We can find encouragement to focus on the second coming and understand how to be prepared for it by looking back at the first coming and seeing how preparations were made as Jesus made his first entry into our world. I am directing our attention to two things to help us do that. The first is to see what God has been doing throughout history. The second is to see the message God specifically gave just as Christ was about to make his appearance.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Advent is not just a time for focusing on a baby coming in a manger. Advent is when we remember that God has been at work in our world for thousands of years calling for people to know him as the one true God. Then we realize that the ultimate way he has done this is to bring his Son into our world as a human being. But everything that went before led up to it.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">The Old Testament history of Israel is essential to our understanding of who God is and what he is doing. God had formed Israel to lead all nations into the fullness of his grace and his purpose for all people. Over and over God would bless the children of Abraham, but they would use the blessings selfishly and forget God. God would chastise, they would repent and turn back to the Lord.... and then they would let their hearts wander again. Finally God sent a crushing chastisement. It was as if God had totally rejected them, but then he speaks through Isaiah:</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;"><b class="">Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.</b></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><b class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,</b></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;"><b class="">and proclaim to her</b></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;"><b class="">that her hard service has been completed... </b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">(40:1,2a)</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">Isaiah goes on to promise that </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">the glory of the Lord shall be revealed</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (v5). The </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">Sovereign Lord</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> will </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">come</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">with power</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (v10) and </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">tend his flock like a shepherd</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (v11). But God’s people need to be ready, so the message comes to </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">prepare the way for the Lord</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (v3).</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Yet we are so easily distracted. Just like Israel, we can get excited about God’s blessings—even go through the motions of giving him the credit—but still get all wrapped up in our own selfish desires. Like Israel, our hearts can be pulled away from the Lord to the alluring, and often despicable, things the world flashes before our eyes.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">There's a story told of a pastor who was officiating at a funeral. When he was done, he was asked to lead the funeral procession as it made its way to the cemetery. So he got into his car, and he started driving at the head of the funeral procession. He flipped on his radio and became preoccupied, lost in thought; he forgot where he was going. About that time, he passed a K-Mart and thought about something he needed to pick up. So he turned into the parking lot. As he was looking for a parking space, he just happened to glance into the rear-view mirror and saw a string of cars following, all with their lights on!</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">That is what happened to Israel. God put his people out in front to lead the way, so that all people could see the way to the one true God. Then they took their eyes off God. They became preoccupied with themselves. Now we see them in this first text needing the promise and mercy of God to heal and restore. God has to tell us what he is doing and what he expects. As God says through Isaiah in another place: </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (55:8). Many people do not know how to prepare for God to come. We think we can be in God’s presence any old way. Some people tend to think that they are doing God a favor when they mention him occasionally or go to church once a week (or a couple of times a month!).</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">Popular religion turns the focus on </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">us</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">—what </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">we</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> think is good and important. Years ago, in his </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">New York Times </i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">column, David Brooks reviewed Mitch Albom, the guy who wrote </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">Tuesdays with Morey </i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">and </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">The Five People You Meet in Heaven</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">. Brooks said (and I agree with him) we should fear Albom's "soft-core spirituality" and "easygoing narcissism." The eternal reward pictured in Albom's book is different than the biblical one. Brooks observes, "In this heaven, God and his glory are not the center of attention. It's all about you. Here, sins are not washed away. Instead, hurt is washed away. The language of good and evil is replaced by the language of trauma and recovery" ("Hooked on Heaven Lite," <a class="" href="http://www.nytimes.com/">www.NYTimes.com</a>, 3-9-04).</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Some people dismiss the whole thing. They do not think any Lord is coming, and they think that what Christians know to be the Lord’s merciful delay is proof that there is no reason to worry at all.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">There is a story that Satan once called to him the emissaries of hell and said he wanted to send one of them to earth to aid women and men in the ruination of their souls. He asked which one would want to go. One creature came forward and said, "I will go." Satan said, "If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?" He said, "I will tell the children of men that there is no heaven." Satan said, "They will not believe you, for there is a bit of heaven in every human heart. In the end everyone knows that right and good must have the victory. You may not go."</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Then another came forward, darker and fouler than the first. Satan said, "If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?" He said, "I will tell them there is no hell." Satan looked at him and said, "Oh, no; they will not believe you, for in every human heart there's a thing called conscience, an inner voice which testifies to the truth that not only will good be triumphant, but that evil will be defeated. You may not go."</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Then one last creature came forward, this one from the darkest place of all. Satan said to him, "And if I send you, what will you say to women and men to aid them in the destruction of their souls?" He said, "I will tell them there is no hurry." Satan said, "Go!"</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">This theme is throughout the Scriptures. We find Peter needing to tell the Church the same thing. When we get tired of waiting and when our eyes get blinded to the Old Testament models, we need a direct word like Peter gives us: </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (2Pet 3:8). And yet Peter is clear: </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">the day of God</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> is coming, and that means </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">you ought to live holy and godly lives</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> (v11,12). That is one way to prepare the way for the Lord.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Think back to the overall scope of Scripture again. God had been at work in our world for years through Israel to prepare the way for his Son to make his appearance. The way he works is through people like Abraham and David and Isaiah—people who have personally experienced his salvation and live holy, righteous lives. Those are the people who truly prepare the way for the Lord.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">If we need to be </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">holy </b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">to be prepared for the Lord’s coming, what does that mean for us? What do </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">godly lives</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> look like? We tend to put the emphasis (like the scribes and Pharisees) on outward appearance. We too easily fall for stereotypes. We quickly pass over the one key thing that God desires in his people.... because it is the one thing that is so hard for us— </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">admitting when we are wrong</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">. We want to settle for “knowing the right things.” We are even ready to conform to the right code as long as someone can provide one that seems to make us look good.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">When the Gospels begin their story, John is the bridge between the Old Testament and the new thing God is doing. His identity was very much in the prophetic mode of the Old Testament. He was someone that would speak on behalf of the God of Israel. He was representative of all the things God had said and done for the past two thousand years. But John was also someone with a new thing to say. This mixture of the old and new worked this way: The Old Testament hope was that God would come, that God would bring salvation from enemies, that God would show mercy. This was the “right doctrine,” we might say. The new twist to John's message would be that in the coming of Jesus all these hopes had been fulfilled, but </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">people needed help to see the very thing they were looking for</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">This was John’s message—one single focus: </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">repentance</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">. The job of John the Baptizer was to come out of the wilderness and talk to people and to prepare them, so that when Messiah made his appearance, they would not only know who he was but be prepared to respond to what he said and called them to do. To see Christ, to know Christ, to obey Christ, demands preparation. The baptizer said the right preparation is repentance. Repentance is more than an act.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">Repentance is a lifestyle. It is a way of living. To put it in more poetic words, it is the process of keeping soft before the Spirit of God. You cannot be sorry in your heart before God for sinfulness if you are not replacing the sinful acts with righteous acts. Preparation demands that day by day as we look to see Christ, we are substituting right acts for bad acts in our lives. Too much of popular theology says to practice forms of repentance, but not really change our actions. As John prepares us to receive Christ, he says you can't have one without the other. We are called to live in repentance. That is preparing the way for the Lord.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">What do you and I say when we are confronted with this implication of God's salvation? Actually, what we say means little if it doesn't match what we do. And what we do needs to be placed alongside God's standards of holiness and righteousness for us to know where we truly stand. If we do that honestly we will know one thing: we need the preparation that the first Advent offers us. We need the mercy that Jesus brings to God's people. We need the first Advent not to be afraid at the second. The call is to prepare, and the way to prepare is to live in repentance for all the ways we fall short of being like God. In the words of Isaiah, we should be praying always that the Lord would, in our souls, </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">raise up every valley and make low every mountain and hill</i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: inherit;">I close with a story that shows repentance: Kimberly Shumate tells how she became a Christian after living as a witch. We pick up the story as she, after coming to the end of herself, walks into a church:</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt;">As I sat down, I silently shot up a desperate prayer: God, please give me someone in this crazy crowd I can relate to. If you don't give me someone, I'm walking out of here. At that moment, the pastor told the congregation to stand up and shake a few hands. I introduced myself to Lisa, whose dyed-red hair and nose ring suggested we might be at a similar place. My black-and-white hair and spiked belt told her the same. Lisa, a fellow spiritual seeker, and I became fast friends.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">Looking back, I wonder how the church members stood having me in their midst for so long. I was angry and exasperated as I sat listening to their "good news." How could there be only one way to God? At the end of each message, I marched down the aisle to the pastor and began firing off an onslaught of questions. After three or four weeks of verbal sparring, he humbly offered the associate pastor's ear. I made my rounds from one elder to another, finally ending up at a Friday night Bible study looking for answers.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">As I sat on the floor in the leader's living room, I felt a peace amidst this group of people who seemed to care about each other. After the study, Lisa sat beside me as Scott, the leader, patiently listened to my New-Age arguments. But one by one, the Scriptures I'd carefully prepared to punch holes in the gospel came back at me with hurricane force. Scott's words, but especially the Bible's words, confounded my cosmic view. After we'd sat there for an hour debating, I was exhausted. My hardened heart and argumentative nature finally had enough. </span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">As Lisa drove me home, my mind ached as I replayed Scott's words. All the Old Testament and New Testament verses had one oddly familiar voice, one tone, one heart. I wondered, How could a book written by so many different people over the course of hundreds of years fit together perfectly as if one amazing storyteller had written the whole thing? The Holy Spirit began melting my vanity and arrogance with a power stronger than any hex, incantation, or spell I'd ever used. Suddenly, the blindfold I'd worn for almost 30 years was stripped away, and instantly I knew what I'd been searching for: Jesus! The same God I'd neglected, whose name I'd used as profanity, whom I'd flat-out rejected, was the one who'd sent his Son to suffer for me, to take the guilty verdict so I could be found innocent. My eyes filled with tears as I exchanged the darkness with which I'd grown so accustomed for the light of God's truth. It was such a personal moment between the Lord and me that even Lisa, sitting next to me in the car, had no idea what was going on.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">I soon realized my life was filled with empty props, and it was time to clean house. My first act of obedience was to throw out all my books on witchcraft and the paranormal, as well as my Tarot cards. But the most important possession, and most difficult to discard, was my treasured crystal ball.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">I called Lisa. She came right over, and we immediately drove to the Pacific Ocean. My heart pounded as if the demons themselves weren't far behind us. We stood at the end of Malibu Pier, our beaming faces reflecting the radiance of the setting sun. I unwrapped the crystal's black velvet cover, and light streamed out like rainbows as the thick crystal met the sun's fleeting rays. As I dropped the ball into the deep blue water, I knew my future was secure. Now I had a Savior who would be with me always. It still moves me to tears to think he waited through all those years of anger, disappointment, fear, and bad choices. All the mistakes I'd ever made were wiped clean. (Kimberly Shumate, "I Was a Witch," </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i class="">Today's Christian Woman, </i></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt;">Sep/Oct 2002, pp41-43)</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">As we go into this Advent season I want us to think about the way we are preparing the way for the Lord. We may not have dramatic stories like the conversion of a witch, but we can legitimately take as much care in preparing our hearts for the coming of God's Son as Messiah College took when President Carter visited their campus—</span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><i class="">nothing there that does not belong.</i></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;">Hear the Scriptures: </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">Prepare the way for the Lord.... live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God...</b></span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"> truly believe (and model) that </span></span></span><span class="" style="color: black;"><span class="" style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span class="" style="font-size: small;"><b class="">the glory of the Lord will be revealed.</b></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i class="" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prepare the way for the Lord.</i></p>David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-62087215093760301712020-10-17T14:29:00.002-04:002020-10-17T14:29:59.219-04:00Brief update<p> In June 2020 I was diagnosed with melanoma brain tumors. I have been in treatment since then, and mostly out of commission for doing any sermonizing.</p><p>Things seem to be going "ok" right now, and I hope to be doing homilies before too long.</p><p>For any who still attempts to follow me this way, thanks and blessings!</p><p>DH</p>David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-73241568108159748682020-06-06T20:36:00.003-04:002020-06-06T20:36:34.467-04:00Don't get too distracted!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't get too distracted!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lectionary reading this past week has included Paul's second letter to Timothy. So long ago the Holy Spirit gave inspiration to help us hold steady:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What the Church has taught and Scripture has affirmed for almost 2000 years is what we are to focus on and hold to tightly in spite of all the perverted thinking and activity that cannot see beyond what appears to so important at the moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Spend more time in Scripture and prayer instead of letting daily "news" create a distraction from the Kingdom that will endure beyond all that seems so important in this world that is passing away.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-35255613874521071092020-04-10T14:16:00.002-04:002020-04-10T16:46:34.852-04:00Good Friday –– Amazing Love!<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>Good Friday –– <i>Amazing Love!</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">April 10, 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">With arms spread wide on the cross, Jesus shows us an incredible contrast….</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The suffering and death is a picture of what sin––turning away from God––means. The cross shows what sin is in the eyes of God’s holiness and justice. Jesus on the cross is us, because all of us are guilty of choosing our own way instead of God’s perfect love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And yet that is exactly the paradox and contrast of the cross. The cross shows us God’s love. Instead of allowing the repercussion of sin to fall on us, God chose to take it upon himself. Jesus suffered and died for me…. and for you…. and for the injustices of the whole world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">God himself….. taking my place…. loving me so much that he took the ridicule, the shame, the pain, and death itself so I can freely enter into His incredible love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One hymn writer asks, <i>What Wondrous Love Is This?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While it’s beyond our comprehension, it is right for us to reflect so that we can immerse ourselves in God’s love as much as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Perhaps my favorite hymn writer is Charles Wesley. In one of his masterpieces he has penned these words:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>’Tis mystery all! The immortal dies!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?!</i></span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-22049612013624702112020-04-05T11:40:00.000-04:002020-04-05T11:40:21.827-04:00Going to JerusalemI first developed this sermon in the early 1980s when I was Associate Pastor of the Grantham Brethren in Christ Church, the campus congregation at Messiah College. Over the years I have used it again, and as you will see at the end, I have "tweaked" it to bring it a bit more up to date with what God has done in my life since the early 80s. I offer this today, Palm Sunday 2020, in these days of seclusion and recognizing that as we follow Jesus in his death we do not know until the day of our physical death where that will lead. May the Lord give us the grace to follow him to the very end.<br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">GOING TO JERUSALEM</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">John 12:12–33</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">On Palm Sunday the Church begins to follow her Lord on his path to the cross in Jerusalem. This is not just a story of something that happened in the life of one man so many years ago. Neither is it only an integral part of the Church’s doctrine. The <i>message</i> of the gospel is also a <i>method</i> that must be incarnated — fleshed out in the lives of those who take it seriously. The message that comes to us from Jesus Christ is not only an offer of forgiveness and a gift of salvation, it is a call to obedience. I invite us to consider what <i>going to Jerusalem</i> means.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first thing to consider is </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">what going to Jerusalem meant for Jesus</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> himself. It is important enough to be included in all four gospels. Holy Week begins with the acclaim that Jesus received from the people as he rode into the city. But he did not go into Jerusalem to hear the shouts of <i>Hosanna</i> or even to test the waters of the people's affections. The first thing we can see in this event of Jesus' life is its parallel to his teaching. Jesus is coming face to face with a theme that occurs time and again throughout the gospels, and John has Jesus saying it here in connection with this going to Jerusalem. It's in vs24,25:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Those who love their life lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Those were not mere words rolling off the lips of Jesus so people would say, "What a profound thinker!" This was no intellectual concept to be understood, but kept at arm's length. Jesus knew it was the truth about the way things are, and that every human life in the world had to face the implication of that truth — even he himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It has always been that way. About 2,000 years before Jesus said these words, God came to Abraham: "Abraham! How about that life you hold so dear? Do you still love me? Even more than Isaac? Offer him as a sacrifice!" Now here is Jesus, going to Jerusalem knowing he is God the Father's Isaac.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is here that we see the second thing that going to Jerusalem meant for Jesus: it was a test of obedience to the Father. Think of how the cross must have loomed on the horizon of Jesus' consciousness. How much did the boy Jesus understand when he stated at 12 years of age, "I must pursue the things of my Father," to those men steeped in the Scriptures? Most biblical scholars agree that by the time of his baptism, Jesus knew what lay ahead. In the first three gospels, Jesus’ temptation occurs right after his baptism, and already Satan tries to dissuade Jesus from the path of the cross. As John opens his story of Jesus' ministry, there is a calamitous wedding. Jesus' mother comes to him for help and gets a reply that shows the shadow that was already falling on him: "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come" (2:4).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Over half of Luke's account is devoted to Jesus going to Jerusalem. It all starts at 9:51— <b>As the time approached…. Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.</b> By the time Luke’s Gospel gets to 18:31, Jesus and his disciples are nearing Jerusalem. Again, Jesus is aware of what lies ahead. Luke records:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Jesus took the twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him </b>(18:31,32).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So what did going to Jerusalem mean for Jesus? It meant that his teaching on life / death and giving / keeping were real life issues. It was not enough to talk about them. They had to be acted upon. It also meant that Jesus must persevere to the end in his obedience to the Father. The question was before him as he faced Jerusalem — as it had been at the other instances in his ministry. What was his answer to be? At v27 we hear him ask the question of himself and give the answer: <b>Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father save me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.</b>" For Jesus, going to Jerusalem meant death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A second question to ask is </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">what Jesus going to Jerusalem meant for the world</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">. I raise that because of v31,32, where there are three obvious things: (1) judgment on the world, (2) freedom for the world, and (3) an invitation to the people of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Here is the essence of the gospel. God always responds to sin with judgment, but in sending his Son he has chosen to put on Jesus the punishment of our sins. But it's not only our sinfulness that's at stake; <b>the whole world is in the power of the evil one </b>(1Jn 5:19). Satan must be defeated, and that is what Jesus is doing by going to Jerusalem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Do you remember the parable of the strong man? You can find it in Matthew 12. Jesus asked the question: "How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he robs his house" (v29). That is right after he had spoken the words, <b>But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.</b> You see, by going to Jerusalem, Jesus was entering the strong man's house. He was making his move to take the rule of earth away from Satan. And the word here in v31 is, <b>Now the prince of this world will be driven out.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The context for this is v32: Jesus is to be "lifted up" — crucified. That crucifixion is the seed going into the ground. It is the full incarnation of what it means to not try to save one's own life. It is the way judgment has been turned to mercy and bondage to freedom. Jesus' going to Jerusalem means we are invited to come to God knowing that our sins are forgiven, and the prince of this world has no further claim on us. Paul put it this way when he wrote to the Corinthians: <b>All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b>(2 Cor 5:18,19). </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">For the world, Jesus going to Jerusalem meant salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The third question I want to ask, though, is this: </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">What does Jesus going to Jerusalem mean for the believer</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">? It is here that we need to pause and reflect as we journey through Lent. This is where God has something fresh to say to each of us. Here we find the watershed that delineates people who only know the <i>story</i> from people who understand the implications of the story and truly <i>follow</i> Jesus. Notice v26: <b>Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How do we follow Jesus to Jerusalem? There is a sense in which, if we are believers in Jesus Christ, we have already followed Jesus to Jerusalem. We are <i>in him</i>, as Paul says so often. When Jesus went to Jerusalem, he went there for me and for each one of you. That is the gospel — he took our place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the teaching that comes to us in the epistles as they interpret this great thing God did in sending his Son to the cross. Consider a chapter like Romans 6. Think about what Paul is saying there:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?</b> (v3).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection</b> (v5).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>For we know that our old self was crucified with him...</b> (v6).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Now if we died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him</b> (v8).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That is part of one chapter from one epistle. The fact that we died with Christ is basic to everything else in personal salvation. It is the basis of God's forgiveness and it is the basis of our response. Consider the argument for holy living in Colossians 3, where we are reminded that there is a fundamental truth which dictates one's behavior — <b>For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God</b> (v3). It has already happened. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem to die, he carried with him all who would believe. That is the first way, then, that we follow Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But there is a second way. Two verses later in the Colossian text, there is this command: <b>Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature</b> (3:5). This time the verb is not indicative of something that is already true; instead it's imperative — a command — to experience what God has already decreed. That is the part which is so easy to avoid. There is comfort in hearing that Jesus went to the cross for us, but the words <b>take up your cross and follow me</b> seldom elicits the same enthusiasm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jeremy Taylor was a 17th century man of God who lived in England and wrote a book, <i>The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living</i>. In it he said, "Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error before an afflicted truth." I know that is my natural inclination. I had much rather think I can embrace mentally the doctrine of salvation and yet not be personally inconvenienced. And considering our culture with its self-indulgence and narcissism, that seems to be the condition upon which people will hear the gospel — if at all. We want a religion that will make us happy, not one that calls us to come and die.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is so easy to shirk the spiritual fight. It is so easy to presume on grace instead of battling to the death those things in Colossians 3 — the sexual immorality, impurity, evil desires and greed; the anger, filthy language and lying. We cringe to hear of Christian service that might call for inconvenience and discomfort, much less physical danger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That is not the way the Scriptures portray following Jesus. Listen to Paul as he wrote his second letter to Corinth:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake</b> (4:8-11).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That is what Jesus meant when he said, <b>Whoever serves me must follow me</b> (v26). Just as he came to live out the truth that he taught, so he calls his disciples. <i>The message and the method are one</i>. The message is Jesus and him crucified. The method for those who would continue the message is also to know of that crucifixion working in them. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer so eloquently put it: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus said, <b>no servant is greater than his master</b> (Jn. 13:16; 15:20). Any perversion of Christianity that would spare the believer a cross must be seen as a deception having its origin in Satan himself. As we get ready for Holy Week, let us not forget that there was no resurrection without the crucifixion; no elevation to glory without the obedience. When John shows Jesus going to Jerusalem, he has him going to his death. Here is the question for today: Are we truly following Jesus? Where is our Jerusalem? What <i>death</i> is the Lord wanting to work into you in order to transform your life?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I look back on my life and realize much of my ministry was spent declaring “truth” that I had —blindly — allowed to become disconnected to where my heart truly was. I was committed to the truth of the gospel. I took the Scriptures seriously. Many of my years in pastoral ministry were given to a passionate declaration of God’s truth, and yet I was not giving myself fully in following Jesus in death. I gave myself to priorities that, while not “wrong” things, were wrong in my life because of the place they took. I cycled over and over with internal moral battles, not seeing (or being willing to see) that I was hedging on a basic issue of following Jesus into his death in those areas of my life where I wanted to keep some control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In his mercy, the Lord did not allow me to be satisfied with that level of commitment. During my Sabbatical in 2002 I began an intentional process of repentance. I needed to repent of the place some sporting activities had come to have in my life. I needed to repent of how easily I pleased myself in the ways I spent time and money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In that process I began to experience how the life of Jesus is only free to work in us as we die to the things that insulate us from the real work of salvation. Death is not really death when the Lord lets us see the reality of his life at work in our lives. There is no way I would have been ready emotionally to face cancer a few years later without the Lord having already led me into the truth about dying — in some practical ways — in order to live. We cannot truly live for Jesus until we are ready to die.</span></div>
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I have no idea what particular way the Lord may want to work this into each of your lives. That is between you and him. I do know, though, that our Lord calls us to come and die. It is the way he gives us his life.<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">God wants us to know him. Jesus wants us to follow him, but that only comes by the way of the cross. We have to follow Jesus to Jerusalem. The cross is more than an experience Jesus had to face. The cross is more than the general place of the world's salvation. The cross is God's method of bringing his very <i>life</i> into our lives. The Son of God went to Jerusalem, and he died there. Each person who would be faithful to him must follow him there, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dr. David L. Hall</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-69460354883907503902020-03-08T16:35:00.001-04:002020-03-08T18:14:16.880-04:00A BRIEF PICTURE OF REALITY<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
This homily began as a personal journal entry. It was before my diaconate ordination; it was possibly before my entry into the Church (I haven’t looked to see the exact date). The impetus was a Mass I attended when the Gospel was the Transfiguration text. Unfortunately, the homily that day was a totally wasted opportunity (it was not a Diocese of Harrisburg priest). As I sat in agony over what could have been proclaimed, a “what could have been” thought developed in my mind. Later at home, I made the journal entry.</div>
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Some years later, after my ordination, the Transfiguration text was the Gospel on a Sunday I was preaching. I went back to my journal and worked my thoughts from that earlier day into a homily. I have used the essence of this several times, and the Lord keeps nudging me to give it again.</div>
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This year I had developed another homily using the Epistle reading. On Saturday night, as I began to prepare my mind and heart to proclaim God’s Word, I sensed that what I had written for this weekend was not what I was to give. I looked again at the Transfiguration homily and the Spirit gave affirmation. So, here is a previously preached sermon––but the truth is ever new. May the Lord give us spiritual eyes to see…..</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">March 8, 2020 –– 2nd Sunday in Lent</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Genesis 12:1–4a / 2 Timothy 1:8b–10 / Matthew 17:1–9</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>A BRIEF PICTURE OF REALITY</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What if we could go back in time and see Jesus when he was on earth! What did people see when they looked at Jesus? They saw…. <i>a man</i>. Sometimes they saw him do some amazing things, but he was still a man who dressed like them, ate like them, walked the roads and paths like them.... a man who the Scriptures and the Church confess to be fully human.<br />
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Those looking at him during those earthly years would have asked (if they had been told this Man was <i>God</i>): <i>What? How?</i> Jesus seemed—even though he was engaging, puzzling, commanding, divisive and exasperating—to be just another man.<br />
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But one day—one time on one particular day—Peter, James and John saw Jesus in his <i>glory:</i> <b>he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light</b>. And so John wrote later in his Gospel: <b>we have seen his glory</b>. The writer to the Hebrews says that <b>the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being</b>. The glory that covered Adam and Eve at the beginning, the glory that came down on Mt. Sinai and caused Moses’ face to shine, the glory that inhabited the Tabernacle and the Temple, and the glory promised by Isaiah and Ezekiel came into our world in the person of Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet God does not overwhelm us. God wants us to trust him. So Jesus let <i>three</i> of his disciples <i>see</i> his glory <i>once</i> during those ministry days. It was enough to pave the way for a Faith that would change the world. We can believe today because there is a credible eyewitness record that has been established by the Apostles. Peter and John both wrote that they saw.... and they testified that these things are true.... and then they lived––in such a contrasting way to who they previously were—so that people looking at them <b>took notice that they had been with Jesus</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What do you “see” when you come to church? Do we limit our vision to the human side of the liturgy? Do we ever wonder: If Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, why isn’t there an obvious and overwhelming glory? The Transfiguration calls us—warmly and powerfully invites us—to “see” the glory of God beyond what is considered normal and natural in the world around us. Without faith we do not see beyond outward appearance, but Jesus came to show us what is real.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">As Christians, we live in <i>the hope of glory. </i>Our destiny is to be <i>like Jesus</i>. As we journey through these days of Lent, let’s not forget the bigger picture. Jesus gave this early glimpse of his glory so that his disciples (and that includes us) could have <b><i>a brief picture of reality</i></b>. The truth of Jesus… his presence in the Eucharist… the transformation he is doing in us…. it’s all right here.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-28871433986526650092020-02-09T10:32:00.003-05:002020-02-09T10:32:37.789-05:00Being the Light of the World<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">February 9, 2020 –– 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Isaiah 58:7–10 / Psalm 112 / 1 Corinthian 2:1–5 / Matthew 5:13–16</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There’s something both glorious and intimidating in this Gospel: Jesus says, <b>“You</b> (referring to those who follow him) <b>are the light of the world.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Almost instinctively we know that Christians should be exemplary. Yet, if we’re honest, we cry out, “How can I possibly live up to such an expectation?!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Isaiah tells us some of what it means: <b>share, shelter, clothe….and do not turn your back on the hungry, the oppressed, the homeless, the naked.</b> That comes with a promise: <b>then light shall rise for you in the darkness….</b> But again, if we’re honest, we say, “How can I possibly live up to such a challenge?!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Information technology makes us aware of needs that go beyond our comprehension. There is heartbreaking human pain which almost forces us to turn away because it is too overwhelming; answers seem hopelessly complex and immense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Mother Teresa was exemplary in so many ways, and one notable observation particularly applies here. She said, “I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time––just one, one, one. So you begin. I began––I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand…. The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin––one, one, one.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Everyone who follows Jesus is to make a difference. There are many ways to do that, and not all of us will have the same focus. That is good. That is what gives breadth to Christian witness. What matters is making a difference for Jesus’s sake. It’s a big world with many issues and even more needy people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet even as I say this, it’s not that easy. We live in a world that entices us to be selfish. Of course, it’s not expressed that way. We are inundated with advertising that constantly offers us more, bigger, and better. We are offered innumerable rationalizations of why we deserve to focus on ourselves and excuse ourselves from getting too involved with others’ needs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It helps to understand that even as Jesus calls us to be <b>the light of the world</b>, he has also provided the way for us to do it. It’s not merely up to us. Even more, it doesn’t make sense unless we embrace the gift of faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Giving and doing for others in a way that is inconvenient and even costly to us doesn’t make sense in a world of self-indulgence. St Paul wants the Corinthians (and us) to know that <b>faith [does] not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God</b>. It is when we see and believe that God has loved the world through <b>Jesus Christ and him crucified</b> that we understand that God wants to do the same thing in and through us. When we “die” to what is easiest and most profitable for ourselves in order to give and serve––to <i>love</i>––others, we are joined with Jesus. It is then we can be <b>the light of the world</b>, or at least contribute our individual one-candle-power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What if each of you hearing this would reach out in the coming days and weeks to look for one way each day to serve or express a kindness to someone as you go about your routines? And if that someone notices, simply say, “The Lord bless you.” That connects the action explicitly to our faith. Just though our parish we could be touching over a thousand people ever week!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Every day we have opportunities to love in the name of Jesus and be, as Paul expressed it, <b>a demonstration of Spirit and power</b>. Sometimes a few of us may do something that looks “big” as the world looks at things, but usually the ways we show selfless love will be very common (and often personally inconvenient or costly).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is a story from a generation ago about an incident that changed a man’s life. A group of salesmen who went to a week-long sales convention had assured their wives they would be home in time for Friday dinner. Running behind on Friday afternoon, and in a rush at the airport, one of the men hit a table which held a display of apples, which flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all charged ahead to reach their plane which was already boarding. That is, all charged ahead but one. He paused and looked back, then exhaled a deep breath of compassion for a girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He yelled for his buddies to go on, telling one of them to give his wife the message that he was taking a later flight (this was before cell phones, and when airports were considerably more inviting). Then he fully turned to see apples all over the terminal aisle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Looking more closely, he saw a girl in her teens who was blind. She was crying tears of frustration and at the same time helplessly groping for the spilled apples as the crowd passed by with no one stopping. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped reorganize her display. As he did this, he noticed that some of the apples had become bruised. He pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage. Are you okay?” She nodded through her tears as the salesman started to walk away. Suddenly the girl, still in semi-shock, called out to him, "Mister...." He paused, turned and said, “Yes?” She asked, “Mister, are you Jesus?” That moment became a milestone in his life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>You are light of the world.</b> When we understand that we become light as we embrace the cross, this identify can be quite intimidating. So we pray for grace and strength.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">One way the grace and strength come to us is when we open our eyes to see not just the intimidation but the glory––<b>you are the light of world</b>. It’s not because of who we are in ourselves; it is because God has invited us to be partakers of his grace. Think of this: <i>the life of Jesus Christ can live in you and be expressed through you</i>. Imagine someone seeing Jesus in you! That is why Jesus tells those who follow him: <b>You are the light of the world.</b></span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-4532294555753889892020-01-19T10:36:00.004-05:002020-01-19T12:22:17.562-05:00Fullness of Faith<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">January 19, 2020 –– 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Isaiah 49:3, 5–6 / Psalm 40 / 1 Corinthians 1:1–3 / John 1:29–34</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Fullness of Faith</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Properly understood, every facet of Christian faith interfaces with the others. I became more aware of this in my journey into the Catholic Church; one of the authors who influenced me referred to Catholicism as “a seamless garment.” I became persuaded that the Catholic Church is the “fullness of the Faith” in a tangible form.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What does this have to do with today’s readings? Consider St John’s account of the Baptism of Jesus. It is significant that all four Gospels give an account of the Baptism of Jesus. There is no way to unpack the Baptism of Jesus in one homily (or even a reasonable-length book!). Jesus’ Baptism is the gateway into all that God’s salvation means––one of those “seamless garment” threads.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One facet of God’s salvation (and again, everything interfaces) comes into focus through the second reading in St Paul’s opening words of his first Corinthian letter. There is a key word (usually translated one of two ways from the Greek, <i>hagios</i>): <i>holy</i> or <i>saints</i>. We are <b>called to be holy</b> (or <b>saints</b>). One way to understand the reason for Jesus’ Baptism and one key point that Paul is making in this letter is that God’s intention for us is to be holy––to be saints.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is not easily assimilated by many people and is one way to see why the fulness of the Church is so important. The default popular understanding of <i>saint</i> in the Catholic tradition is a person who has been canonically sanctioned as having fully completed the transformation of being made holy. This, in turn, affects the way many Catholics often respond (or react) to the word <i>holy</i>––they think it is unapproachable. But being a saint is broader than the declaration of canonical perfection; there is an application of being holy that it is for every one of us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians he reinforces their identity and formation. Something has happened to them to make them who they are: <i>the gathered people of God</i>. Paul says he is writing to <b>the church of God that is in Corinth</b>. He is not writing to all the people in Corinth. There is a distinctive demarcation. It is rooted in Christian identity. How do we see ourselves? Is our connection with God the most significant part of our self-understanding? Beyond anything else, we are Christians. This is where Paul begins his letter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How is it that these people were part of God's church? The remainder of the letter shows they are far from having arrived at holiness in their present setting. But…. they have been <b>sanctified</b>. This essentially means they have been “set apart”––they now belong to God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Paul, speaking through the Holy Spirit, also tells the Corinthians (and us!) they were <b>called to be holy</b> (or to be <b>saints</b>). Here it is good to see that <i>holy</i> means "different." One way to be holy is to be distinctive––<i>different for Jesus’ sake</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How is such a thing possible? There is another thing about the Christians Paul addresses: they have a foundation. They <b>have been sanctified in Christ Jesus</b>. They are among others from all over who <b>call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ</b>. God's grace has been given to them in Christ Jesus. <i>Christianity is Jesus Christ.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus always has the priority. We did not choose him; he chose us. That is always the starting point for the way we understand ourselves and the Church. No individual person nor single congregation stands alone before God. There is a wonderful prayer in the Liturgy that draws us into this mystery of holiness as we prepare to receive the Eucharist. After we pray the <i>Our Father</i> the priest intercedes with these words: <i>look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church….</i> The Church is a people who are called of God and in Jesus Christ <i>into</i> the great work of salvation that God is doing through his people. Jesus’ Baptism was the initiating expression of that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We are being called into identity with Jesus. What he did––his Baptism, Passion, Death, and Resurrection––he did for us. And when we follow him into those things we are <i>sanctified</i>––set apart, belonging to God. That, in turn, makes us <i>holy</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some years ago the Army had a commercial that was so good I wish they had not used it. It should belong to the Church. You may remember it: <i>Be all that you can be</i>. In the Church, whether it was in Corinth so long ago or whether it’s here in our own parish, being all we can be is a lot because it is not all up to us. It is up to the one who calls us.... who sets us apart.... who helps us to be different.... who gives us his gifts.... who promises us his kingdom. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Remember who you are. You who have followed Jesus in Baptism have been <b>sanctified in Christ Jesus</b>. You are <b>called to be holy</b>––a <b>saint</b>. Believe it, and invite the power of the Holy Spirit to make you <i>be all that you can be</i>.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-33357302949100788582019-12-22T12:04:00.003-05:002019-12-22T14:11:47.380-05:00A Sign From God<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">December 22, 2019 –– Fourth Sunday of Advent</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Isaiah 7:10–14 / Psalm 24 / Romans 1:1–7 / Matthew 1:18–24</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If we’re honest, we will admit that we would like for God to work on our preferred timetable and to do things in a </span>way that it’s easy for us to understand and obey. Yet the general message we find in Scripture is that God is mysterious and we need to trust him.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When we see trouble on the horizon––whether it’s large scale like global or national, or up-close and personal––we want God to “fix it” so that we aren’t threatened or discomforted. King Ahaz was facing an attack from neighboring kingdoms who had formed a coalition against him. Isaiah told him not to be afraid, that God was at work. Then Isaiah told Ahaz he could even ask God for a sign! (How often do we hope, deep in our hearts, that the Lord will give us a clear sign?!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Ahaz declined! Maybe he did what is so easy for anyone to do when God does come close––panic and run (that seems to be an inherited response from Adam and Eve). But God also did what he always does––God acts for what is good. The sign was still given: <b>the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At the time, the sign was unclear. It was rather general and in veiled language. On the other hand, it is an example of something that happens repeatedly in Scripture. The Old Testament especially is full of what biblical scholars call <i>sensus plenior</i>, a Latin phrase that means "fuller sense" to describe a deeper meaning intended by God, but beyond the human author’s intention at the time of writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So we do not know exactly how Isaiah understood what he was saying at the time. Yet this in itself has something to say to us. How often are we unsure what God is doing in our own lives and the things going on around us? Our faith may not readily perceive that God is at work in any up-close and personal way. Or we may, indeed, sense that God is truly up to something––yet not understand what it is. Through all the years of salvation history, this is not unusual. Do not be discouraged if you can’t see or aren’t sure of God’s immediate activity. That doesn’t mean God is not at work! </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The reality of this is magnified in the very event when God was finally making plain what he had said through Isaiah. It came 700 years later! And even then Matthew’s story shows that Joseph didn’t understand what was going on. At first he thought what everyone else would come to assume––Mary had done something she shouldn’t have done (this was part of God coming to us in humility). But Joseph had one thing going for him at the start: he was able to discern the voice of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now, I don’t think we should be <i>looking for</i> a particular revelation when we have a vivid dream or when some unusual thought impresses itself in our minds, <i>but</i>…. we should have spiritual ears which are regularly listening for what God might say, and be open. (I would add to that a readiness to seek spiritual counsel if something seems unusual.) What I’m saying is that God wants to be in a relationship with us. I say this because the fulfillment of God’s message to Isaiah and the outcome of God’s word to Joseph was exactly that: <i>God is with us</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Today we do know what God was saying through Isaiah. The fulfillment of <b>the virgin shall conceive and bear a son</b> is Mary receiving the physical life of God in her womb and giving birth to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary. This is not mere myth; “myth” implies an essential truth. The Virgin Birth is not figurative. This is God at work for our salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We may wonder: why don’t I see God working in big ways like this, “up-close and personal” in my life? The big things are “sprinkled” across the span of salvation history. Scripture is selective. The people and stories which are so familiar come out of centuries of events. C.S. Lewis once observed: “They come on great occasions…. that spiritual history which cannot be fully known by men. If your own life does not happen to be near one of those ganglions, how should you expect to see [it]?” (from <i>Miracles</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As we celebrate another Christmas I want to remind us of three big things from our readings today. First, God is at work for our salvation even if we don’t understand every detail around us. Second, God did a one-time thing through Mary. Third, because of what did God in and through Mary by sending his Son, <i>God is with us</i>, and he wants us to know him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The way we do that is to believe, to trust, and to listen.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-33656828270524719372019-11-13T08:26:00.001-05:002019-11-13T08:26:08.428-05:00Spiritual Authority<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Wednesday: November 13, 2019–– 32nd Week of Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wisdom 6:1–11 / Luke 17:11–19</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Spiritual Authority</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">St Paul tells the Romans that <b>the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable</b> (11:29). He is talking about God’s promises to Israel and giving assurance that the Jewish people will not be left out of the salvation accomplished by Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet the principle goes beyond the particular application in the Romans letter. The original gift and call that God gave his human creation was to govern the earth as his vice-regents. Humans have an inherent spiritual authority that has a cause and effect in this world. It can be used for great good; it can be used for great harm and evil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The harm and evil that has been done is quite visible across the span of history. One of the worst conduits is what we think of as political power. That is the basis of the warning in today’s reading from Wisdom: <b>Because authority was given you by the Lord…. Because though you were ministers of his kingdom, you judged not rightly….Terrible and swift shall he come against you….</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Lord Acton has been credited with saying “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Pride and a selfish lust for power has turned God’s gift of vice-regency into horrible repercussions in our world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But God’s people are not totally helpless. One way to understand prayer is our God-given ability to use spiritual authority to combat the forces of evil which operate through dark principalities and powers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is also a good way to understand why humility and thankfulness can be powerful actions for good––in our own souls and in the world around us. The Gospel shows us the kind of people God is so prone to work in and through––the lowly and desperate, like the lepers. Yet there is a needed response: thankfulness––an attitude that acknowledges God as God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When live unto God we are allowing the spiritual power of our vice-regency to flow through us for good. And so we come to him each day, humbly taking our place both as his exalted creatures and as his dependent children. And we pray…. we pray for good and we pray against evil. And we ask for the grace to give thanks always for his good gifts.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.</b> Let’s use them wisely.</span></div>
David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-56739688661223000152019-11-10T13:09:00.003-05:002019-11-10T13:09:48.941-05:00Life and Death<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">November 10, 2019 –– 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">2 Maccabees 7:1–2, 9–14 / 2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5 / Luke 20:27–38</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Life and Death</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the time of year when the Church turns our attention through the readings to the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The wisdom of Christian Tradition knows we will not easily think about those things on our own. Our society is obsessed with the here and now. Physical comfort, convenience, and entertainment would be contenders for a “secular trinity.” The Scriptures and the lives of the saints tell us that faithfulness to God is more important that all those things––that faithfulness to God is even worth dying for. <i>But….</i> if we are going to hold life in this world loosely, we must have a good reason for our faith. If this life is all there is, the “secular trinity” seems most reasonable. How do we understand the tension of <i>life and death</i>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. They were the aristocrats of Jewish society and collaborated with Rome, the power of the day. Their focus was the here-and-now. An unbalanced focus on life in this world is not an unusual response for the wealthy of any time or place. The Sadducees did not wish to lose their wealth, their comfort, and their “place.” But comfort and convenience can suffocate spiritual life. Who feels a need for God if it seems everything is going great? To the comfortable, heaven can seem like a fairy tale with no relevant meaning. Temporal life becomes more important than God; death is to be avoided at all costs and the interim filled with whatever helps us forget we are going to die.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Contrast the Sadducees with the seven brothers and their mother in the Maccabees story. Life certainly was not comfortable and convenient for them. Alexander the Great’s empire had extended into Judea and there was a tyrannical demand that everyone be totally unified in their allegiance to the state. There was no place for a religious commitment that conflicted with the unification of the social order. How shall we respond when there is pressure to be absorbed into a conformed pattern of living that denies God and his truth? This old Jewish story tells us: Even after being tortured one of the brothers said, </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him….</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One gross distortion of contemporary Christian Faith is to see it as a spiritual insurance policy providing coverage from hard and painful things in life. Prayer becomes access to a divine vending machine––say the right words and you get supernatural goodies. The Thessalonian letter written by St Paul almost 2000 years ago is an ongoing reminder to all Christians that the world can be a hard place––especially for those who give total allegiance to Jesus. Here the Apostle Paul is asking the Thessalonian Christians to pray <b>that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.</b> He knows that all Christians are in a spiritual war and we need God's perspective and presence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When people give Jesus total allegiance and Christians have a passion to extend the Gospel to the whole earth, there will be obstacles. Christian faith and practice are being suppressed more and more in our own nation. Much of the world is closed to Christian witness today because spiritual warfare is real. There is opposition to Christian Faith to the point of persecution and death. It’s been that way throughout history, yet it’s not only an in-the-past issue. More Christians died for their faith in the 20th Century than all previous centuries combined! It is estimated that in the two millennia of Christian history, 70 million faithful have died for the Faith, and 45.5 million––65%–– were in the last century. We are in a spiritual war. Satan does not want the love and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ to prevail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How can we stay faithful? How can we not succumb to the numbing effects of seduction like the Sadducees? How can we choose faithfulness to Jesus above ridicule or financial loss, or even physical persecution? Well, we have examples of faith like the seven brothers and their mother. We have the martyrs of the Church. Most of all, we have Jesus affirming a life that goes beyond this world: <b>the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is a God of the living</b>. As Paul tells the Thessalonians: <b>the Lord is faithful</b>. And so we pray each day for the grace to live in true faithfulness––to give total allegiance to Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We cannot give witness to something we don't live, and we're not expected to live something God hasn't provided. Knowing Jesus Christ is to know God's love. And knowing that love, we are to show the love of Jesus.... to our wife or husband.... to our children.... to our neighbors.... to the people at work. We are to witness to the love of Christ everywhere we go. When we do that, we are being witnesses of the Gospel (the root of “witness” is <i>martyr</i>). When we witness to the love of God, we show that there is something more important than our own comfort and convenience, or even our very lives. It is because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and coming again to bring total healing to this broken world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Luke’s setting for this part of his Gospel is Jesus on the way to the cross (see Lu 9:51). This is so we can know the power of God over death itself. Maccabees tells the story of people who paid the ultimate price for faithfulness to God. Each one of us as Christians is called to “martyrdom” –– laying down our lives in selfless love as a witness to Jesus. It may be a “red martyrdom”–– laying down our physical lives for Jesus’ sake, but more often it’s what the Church calls “white martyrdom”–– dying daily to our selfish desires so that the life and love of Christ in us can grow.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We often hear, “Life is short…. better enjoy it.” How about, “Eternity is long, better prepare for it!” That is how to keep a true perspective on <i>life and death</i>. </span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-36746174087230240582019-11-03T14:30:00.003-05:002019-11-03T14:30:58.724-05:00Jesus Wants Everyone<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">November 3, 2019 –– 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wisdom 11:22–12:2 / Psalm 145 / 2 Thessalonians 1:11–2:2 / Luke 19:1–10</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Jesus Wants Everyone</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When Jesus began his public ministry in Nazareth, he read from the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah: <b>The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor</b> (Luke 4:18). And preach good news to the poor he did. Later Jesus sent an answer to John, who was in prison and wondering if Jesus was the One, saying, <b>Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deafa hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor</b> (7:22,23).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So it can be surprising that Jesus sought Zacchaeus. Luke tells us he was wealthy (v2). Not only was he wealthy, his wealth came through his collaboration with Rome; he was a tax collector. Here was a man who held in public opinion the place a drug dealer might have today. Here was a man opposite of the blind beggar in the previous story of Luke’s Gospel. Zacchaeus had power. He had advantages. He could buy almost anything he wanted. He was surrounded by comfort.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Just as Jesus had pronounced blessing on the poor, he had denounced the rich:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>But woe to you who are rich,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>for you have already received your comfort.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Woe to you who are well fed now,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>for you will go hungry</b> (6:24).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus told horror stories about the rich (12:13ff and 16:19ff). He told the rich ruler to give everything away to the poor, and then commented on the man's reluctance by saying, <b>How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!</b> (18:23). Why did Jesus give attention to Zacchaeus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe it was because he was a tax collector. Anyone who was that despised by everyone else was especially needful of Jesus' compassion. In fact, Levi (or Matthew), one of the twelve disciples, had been a tax collector (5:27). Quite early in his Gospel Luke says that Jesus had a reputation of being a friend of tax collectors (7:34). And because of that, tax collectors made it a point to gather around Jesus (15:1).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The truth is, Jesus gave himself to anyone who would receive him. Jesus gave all kinds of people an opportunity. He ate with tax collectors, yes, but he also ate with Pharisees (7:36 and 14:1). The issue was not one of relative wealth, occupation or handicap. The issue was then what it is today, one of love and grace on Jesus' part, and one of acceptance or rejection on the part of others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Zacchaeus took a first step toward Jesus by going out and climbing the tree. Whether wealthy or sinner of any kind, when someone takes the first step toward Jesus, he will offer his love and mercy. Zacchaeus recognized the need to respond to love and mercy, and he did. He gave away half his possessions to the poor and promised to make restitution for the many times he had cheated people. Jesus reaches out to all kinds of people, and the people who choose to follow Jesus show his grace in their lives in some demonstrable ways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Notice that Zacchaeus gave only <i>half</i> his possessions away. Jesus' word to the rich ruler was to give <i>everything</i> away (18:22). Here is where we find differences. The issue of what to do with wealth did not even exist for the poor who turned to Jesus (like the blind in the previous story). Zacchaeus gave away half and it was enough. Paul wrote to Timothy to <b>tell the rich not to trust in their wealth but to share</b> (1 Tim 6:17-19), but in spite of that warning he does not categorically denounce the rich.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe this is enough for us to begin to see something important about people who follow Jesus. First of all, Jesus wants all kinds of people as his followers. He wants the poor. He wants the handicapped. He wants the people that much of society thinks is worthless. Jesus wants sinners ––big sinners. He wants the kind of people who have collaborated with structural evil. He wants people who have used power to hurt others. He wants people whose manners and way of life are disgusting to normal people. Of course he wants them to change, but he wants them. <b>The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus wants people who are rich. He does not want rich people because of their money; he wants them in spite of it. He <i>may</i> tell some to give it “all” away; he will certainly have those with money who obey him give some of it away. And all of us, like Zacchaeus, need to give back to anyone we have wronged.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So whether one is a common worker or a corporate executive, a rich person or a poor person, a person with almost every advantage or a person with any kind of handicap, Jesus wants you. Whatever or whoever you are, Jesus wants you. But know this: when Jesus “has us” it will change us, as it changed Zacchaeus.</span></div>
David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-72585653632645970912019-10-30T08:23:00.000-04:002019-10-30T08:23:03.453-04:00Desire and Salvation (a daily homily)<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wednesday: October 30, 2019 –– 30th Week in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Romans 8:26–30 / Luke 13:22–30</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Desire, the Holy Spirit, and Salvation</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Someone asked Jesus: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus replied by addressing the questioner personally: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” Those who truly <i>desire</i> to be saved will be saved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">St Augustine said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is then within us a kind of instructed ignorance, instructed, that is, by the Spirit of God who helps our weakness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Lord your God tests you…. to enable you to know. So the Spirit moves the saints to plead with sighs too deep for words by inspiring in them a desire for the great and as yet unknown reality that we look forward to with patience. How can words express what we desire when it remains unknown? If we were entirely ignorant of it we would not desire it; again, we would not desire it or seek it with sighs, if we were able to see it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Here is a consolation: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness”…. and “intercedes with inexpressible groanings.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Whenever we feel drawn to God it is a desire that he has implanted within us. When we respond we are not alone. The Spirit both draws us and helps us. And every day we open ourselves for the grace to hear and follow. Those who do that will be saved.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-30300846231181084842019-09-22T12:38:00.003-04:002019-09-22T12:38:36.956-04:00Living With Passion<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">September 22, 2019 –– 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Amos 8:4–7 / Psalm 113 / 1 Timothy 2:1–8 / Luke 16:1–13</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Living With Passion</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In this Gospel story Jesus is not recommending conniving selfishness (the prophet Amos warns about that!). Jesus is making the point that we are in the same position as this steward who saw his imminent dismissal threatening him with ruin––but the crisis which threatens us is even more serious. The steward was losing his temporal security; all of us are going to die, and how we respond to this temporal world will affect us eternally. The word <b>mammon</b> in the Gospel reading is not merely money, but the sum total of temporal values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Christians, we believe there are two worlds: the unseen world as well as the one that is visible––the world which is eternal as well as the one that is passing away. Some people live as though this world is all there is and ever will be. That means all their values, all their energies and all their hopes are focused on the here and now. Living that way is the essence of unbelief. To live that way is to leave God and his kingdom out of the picture. It is an attitude which thinks that being “happy” right now is the most important thing––and temporal security is a top priority for having happiness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus says the man in this story acted "prudently" (v8). The word is sometimes translated “wisely” or “shrewdly” (emphasizing the devious side of being “wise”). The steward had foresight and recognized the critical nature of his situation. Jesus is not commending his character or what he did; rather, Jesus respects the intensity of the man’s perception and motivation to act “prudently” for his welfare, so he says: <b>For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In essence, Jesus is saying that people who live for the here and now know how to go after what they want. Worldly people know how to be worldly. They are shrewd. They know how to get their way. They know how to take care of what is often called “Number One.” A shrewd businessman knows how to manipulate situations to his own advantage. A playboy knows how to seduce. A “shark” knows how to cheat people. That kind of character goes after their goal with abandon. People consumed with this world know what they want and they know what they have to do to get it. That is how they can be a model to us for how to live with <i>passion</i> for the kingdom of God. The dedication it takes to achieve advancement and pleasure in the here-and-now is the kind of dedication Jesus calls his disciples to have for following him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We live in a world where most people get things backwards. Beginning with the first disobedience in the Garden, people have always tried to rationalize away God's laws. The Pharisees did it (see v14). Many “religious” people do it today. God calls his people to look at life in an upside-down kind of way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One way to think about our priorities and motivations is through the values we hold for our children. So much of the focus is on worldly success. Little Johnny might know little or nothing about God, Scripture, or Sacraments, but let him bring home a bad report card, and the reaction is quick. Here is a big problem because if Johnny doesn’t get better grades, he might not get into the best college, and then he won’t be able to make a killing––I mean.... a living.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Too often in today’s culture kids are taught that sports is the most important thing. Weekly church attendance is not so easy, but daily practice is certainly accommodated. We can think that an hour sitting in church is next to eternity (and don’t dare go over), but hours of a Saturday or Sunday (or both) watching games and going to sports meets is no big deal. Meanwhile Johnny and Susie, who can kick a soccer ball or shoot baskets for hours, barely know Scripture and have no clue at Mass. But Mom and Dad haven’t made those things important, so maybe they’re not important at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But it’s not just families with kids and young adults…. “Mature adults” can spend hours worrying and strategizing to make sure their retirement income enables them to “live life at the standard you have come to expect” (that line was in a commercial). Retirees can passionately give themselves to the pleasures “we worked for so long and hard to enjoy,” and that’s supposedly the crowning glory of life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is so easy for all of us––parents and church leaders––not to be responsible in what matters most to God. Our children hear that they should study hard, get good grades <i>etc</i>., to make it in this world. In its place this is not wrong––but their souls are more important. If we allow our heroes and models to be sports superstars and entertainers who make it big in <i>this</i> world, then what is our true focus? Where are our hearts?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We all have a God-given capacity to go after what we want.... with abandonment. People around us do it all the time. “Go-getters" usually have the admiration of a lot of people. One exception to that is people who are super-motivated about Jesus––they are usually looked upon as "fanatics."</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus is calling us to be disciples who are willing to live for his kingdom with the same intensity with which worldly people pursue their own self interests. The unbelieving world will not easily hear the Church if we as Christians are not modeling distinctiveness in our values and commitments. May our Lord have mercy on us all. May he give us, who claim the name of Jesus, the desire and the strength to serve him with <i>passion</i>.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-83922778496046132142019-09-15T09:06:00.003-04:002019-09-15T09:06:48.012-04:00The Laws of God<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">September 15, 2019 –– 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Exodus 32:7–11,13–14 / Psalm 51 / First Timothy 1:12–17 / Luke 15:1–32</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The Laws of God</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is good and helpful when we can understand the authority of law to be a security and even a comfort in our lives. One curse of self-autonomy is to react to laws as an infringement on our personal freedoms. Whenever we want to do “my own thing” or to be first or to be the exception, we might think of the chaos and anarchy that results if every person relates that way to others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is true in the natural world. Think of the basic law of gravity. Gravity is what keeps our feet anchored to the ground so we can walk. Sometimes we get frustrated with gravity (even if we don’t think of it in those terms): if we drop something valuable or precious to us and it breaks, we can think “why did that have to fall?” Or when we weigh ourselves we might wish the gravitational pull was not so intense on the scales.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This carries into the spiritual world. Just as there is a law of gravity in the natural world, there is a Law of Divine Retribution in the spiritual world. Disobedience to God brings hard repercussions. Sin gets judged. In the first reading Israel turned away from God and was in immediate danger of divine retribution. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the wayward young man remembers life at his fathers’s house (the household where he formerly felt so confined and restricted) and becomes aware of what he has done––<b>I have sinned against heaven and against you</b>; and he knows the appropriate repercussion––<b>I no longer deserve to be called your son</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If we see only the restrictive and threatening side of law, the result is usually misery. As the parable opens the prodigal son felt the restrictions of home and bolted. At the end of the story his brother, the older son, thought he had done right. When the prodigal returned the other son complained to the father: <b>all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends…</b> The younger son selfishly ran away and the older son miserably remained to “earn” (this is implicit) the favor of the father.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It would have been “best” for both sons to stay at the Father’s house out of love––most of all, out of love for the father, but also allowing that love to open their eyes to the true goodness of the father’s house (instead of evidently seeing mostly confinement). Neither of the sons had truly understood the father’s heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All three readings today have one focus: God wants us to be “grabbed” by the true nature of his heart. In spite of the atrocity Israel committed against the Holy One who had so recently delivered them (even so miraculously) from slavery in Egypt, <b>the L</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>ORD</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> relented in the punishment he had threatened….</b> Writing to Timothy, Paul remembers his sins––<b>a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant</b>, but then gives this wonderful witness: <b>I have been mercifully treated…</b> The prodigal son goes home and tells his father: <b>I have sinned…. I no longer deserve to be called your son.</b> But even before he could get those words out, <b>while he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Just like in the natural world, there are spiritual laws. There is a Law of Divine Retribution, but it is only a default for those who will not accept another, and deeper, Divine Law of Mercy. It is rooted in the nature of the God whose name is Love. In the natural world there is a law of gravity, but it can be superseded by the law of aerodynamics. Gravity tells us that something as heavy as an airplane cannot stay “up” but the law of aerodynamics shows that gravity does not have total force. And while airplanes eventually have to come down, in the spiritual world the Law of Divine Retribution can be perpetually superseded by the Law of Mercy. St Paul affirms to Timothy––<b>This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Something broken in us inclines us to focus on the negative. Like the older brother we easily see it in others (and, like the older brother, we often want to justify ourselves because we think we’ve behaved “better” than someone else). Sometimes we focus on the negative in ourselves; Satan wants us to do that if it can drive us to despair. What God wants us to see is his love and mercy––his father’s heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am a father and a grandfather. I cannot describe the love I have for my family. I would die for the good of my children, but that is only an inadequate expression of the love of God. Again, <b>Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners</b>. There is no greater love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">St Ambrose, the early Father of the Church who helped form St Augustine, says this of God the Father:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Truly, he will come out running to meet you, his arms will be all embracing––for <b>the L</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>ORD</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> lifts those who are bowed down</b> (Ps 147:6)––and he will give you a kiss, a sign of affection and of love; he will order his servants to dress you, to put a ring on you and give you sandals. You still are fearful for the affront you have caused, but he returns to you the dignity which you had lost. You fear punishment, and he kisses you. Finally, you fear being scolded, but he entertains you with a banquet.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Hear the Gospel. Let the “spiritual law of aerodynamics” lift you into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father and then soar in the mercies of grace given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. As we come to the banquet of the Eucharist we are “fueled” with grace so we can fly, and <b>they who wait for the L</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>ORD</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b> shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint</b> (Isa 40:31). This is the Law of Mercy from our Father.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-60449122417524131892019-09-01T12:25:00.002-04:002019-09-01T12:25:50.516-04:00Humility As Vulnerability<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">September 1, 2019 –– 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sirach 3:17–18,20, 28–29 / Psalm 68 / Hebrews 12:18–19, 22–24a / Luke 14:1, 7–14</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Humility As Vulnerability</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The readings today call our attention to humility. It is easy also to think of the implicit opposites of pride and self-centeredness. Right away we should understand the difference between humility and humiliation. Humiliation is a twisted rejection––of ourselves or from others––of the value that God himself has placed on us. We are not being proud when we recognize the good that is there because of what God has done. It is humility when we live with the attitude that our good things come from God and that ultimately everything belongs to him. Pride tells us to use every situation to our own advantage––to do all we can to make ourselves look good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Last week's Gospel told us that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. He is on the journey that will take him to his death. In today's reading Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem, but he is also at a stop. He is in the home of a Pharisee for a meal, and he uses the opportunity to model and teach us how to live. Jesus did not separate his life and death. He came to die; he shows us, on the way to his death, how to live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This story took place while Jesus was eating. God's ways are best understood when they are incorporated into everyday life. Scripture tells us that meals are great opportunities for teaching God's ways. What do we talk about at meal time? Here we have “table talks from Jesus.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus was at a feast. At those meals there was a ranking order. The most important people would sit closest to the host or guest of honor. Jesus uses this occasion to portray what true humility looks like in such a setting (and he is actually helping avoid humiliation). In telling the guests to take the less important seats, Jesus was teaching through a specific example what Paul would later conceptualize when he wrote to the Romans (12:3), <b>Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought</b>. One word that gives a bit of insight to this is being willing to be <i>vulnerable.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Even as Jesus teaches humility here, he models the ultimate example that Paul so wonderfully gave the Philippians (2:6–8): <b>Jesus… who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing…. he humbled himself and became obedient to death––even death on a cross!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Jesus concludes his table talk, he also gives a word to the host himself. Jesus says a host should invite people who cannot return the invitation. Humility affects the way we give. One way to understand humility is to see it as an opposite of <i>taking</i>. Humility looks for a way to give; pride looks for a way to get. This coincides with what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. There he asked, <b>If you love only those who love you, what good is that?</b> (5:46). True giving is when there is little or no potential for getting something back. Embracing Christian giving makes us vulnerable. Here’s a question to consider: Would our financial giving to the church be the same if the IRS did not give a deduction?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s easy to play the game "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." The opposite of living that way is learning to be honest before God and to hold nothing back (God knows everything about us anyway; he knows if our obedience is from the heart or mostly to impress others). <i>One way to understand Christian Faith is embracing personal vulnerability</i>. We are getting close to God when we realize we are needy! We need God’s love and care and salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The readings today remind us that when our focus is on ourselves we will try to use every situation to our own advantage. A focus on self will be mostly concerned with personal comfort and security. In contrast, following Jesus reverses the way we usually think and live in everyday life. We are invited to enter into the incredible grace of being loved by God so that we ourselves become channels of his love and grace and mercy. That is what Jesus taught and modeled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">May our Lord give us the grace of humility––and a growing grace to follow him with whole hearts, day in and day out, in all our situations. Perhaps, at a family meal, you can talk about what it means to live with a vulnerable trust in God!</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-77891360899880397372019-08-11T12:19:00.001-04:002019-08-11T12:19:15.384-04:00Ready for God’s Kingdom<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">August 11, 2019 –– l9th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Wisdom 18:6–9 / Psalm 33 / Hebrews 11:1–2, 8–19 / Luke 12: 32–48</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Ready for God’s Kingdom</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Christian Smith is a sociologist of religion at Notre Dame. He uses the term <i>Moralistic Therapeutic Deism</i> to describe the popular religion of American people. These are the basic tenets:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">––A God exists who created and ordered the world and “watches over” human life on earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">––God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other as taught by most world religions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">––The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">––God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when needed to resolve a major problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">––“Good” people go to heaven when they die.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is a growing assumption that this is a basic summary of Christian Faith. These things are easy to “believe” because they make few demands on our lives and, in a society where “feelings” are almost the ultimate criteria of values, believing these things make us feel good. The rebellious mantra of the 60s has become today’s secular dogma: If it feels good, do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But what if deciding right and wrong is not just a point of view? What if religion is not just a list of rules—mine or yours or anyone else’s? What if truth is not the ever-changing consensus of the crowd but instead is a Person you can get to know and a Person who knows you? Christian Faith says this Person’s story is told in the Bible. His name is Jesus. It is good to listen to what he says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In contrast to living for convenience and temporary happiness and presuming that we measure up to God’s standard of “good,” Jesus exhorts his disciples to live differently. They are to give and <b>store up treasure in heaven</b>. Disciples are to be <b>like servants who await their master’s return </b>late in the night; they’re to be ready to serve the needs of the master. Then Jesus introduces another element: One concern of the master is to make sure that no one breaks into the home. Here we have the introduction of evil and the possibility of danger. Someone could break into the house and wreak havoc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Peter asks a question, “Lord, is this meant for us or for everyone?” The disciples have lived in the presence of Jesus. They have been given much. Yet the inference is that if they’re not vigilant, they will be judged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus’ words are not only directed at disciples who lived long ago; they are directed at us. We also know the will of God through Jesus Christ. We have the Sacraments, the Scriptures and the Apostolic teaching of the Church. We have been <b>given much more</b> than the disciples initially had.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We are caught today in a conflict of faithfulness and complacency. There are popular but devastating beliefs and values and assumptions voiced in the media and among some of our personal relationships. False teaching <i>is</i> breaking into “the house”––the Church, and it is wreaking havoc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A recent report has projected that only 50 percent of those surveyed even know that the Catholic Church teaches that during the Mass, the bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Jesus. Of that 50 precent, 28 percent believe the church’s teaching, but 22 percent reject it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As our larger society grapples with decreasing respect for human life and an evaporation of any boundaries to sexuality, many claiming to be “Catholic” are surrendering to whatever seems popular or easy. Jesus is saying the opposite. He is the Master. He has promised to come again, and he can come at any time. His servants are to be ready when he does come. The world around us says: “Focus on your own security…. live the easiest way you can…. take a short cut…. do what's most convenient….” If we always choose what is quick and easy in the service of our heavenly Master, we will not be ready at his appearing. Life is more than temporal comfort and happiness. Christian living means staying ready.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Gospel today asks: “Are we <i>ready</i>?” Jesus wants us to be prepared for the coming fullness of God’s kingdom. We must each decide whether to be servants of the Word of God, or to embrace whatever is convenient and “feels” right. Catholic parishes are meant to be places of refuge and vigil. Here find help as we await the coming of our Lord and embrace him in the Eucharist and in the Scriptures. One important reason to gather as the Church every week is to remember that the One we follow did not choose the quick and easy way. He chose obedience to a truth that was not easily understood. He chose to persevere in prayer and surrender to the Father’s plan. He chose the hard road to the cross. And as he finished his earthly ministry he could say to the Father, <b>I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do</b> (Jn. 17:4).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Each week we come to hear God’s Word. Each week we come to eat our Lord’s Body and drink his Blood. This is the very life of the Church. This is meant to hold us steady as we live in a confused and conflicted world. Consistently in the Mass we are reminded: <b>When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again</b>. <i>Until he comes</i> we remind ourselves of what Jesus said and did, and he said he would come back. We remember that he will come back at an unsuspected hour. We remember that he has called us to be and stay ready until then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus warns that a coming judgment will fall those who are not ready. In the meantime we will be surrounded by people and social media that try to throw “quick and easy” options in our path from every direction. We can be ridiculed if we live differently. But as surely as we profess our faith by partaking of the Body and Blood of our Lord, let us also persevere in the faith that has been handed down from the Apostles and stay ready…. <i>until he comes</i>. The reward, if we’re ready, is the greatest event we’ll ever attend: the heavenly Supper of the Lamb. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">This is what Jesus says.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-61642406146196319322019-07-14T17:00:00.003-04:002019-07-14T17:00:42.446-04:00Godly Perspective<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">July 14, 2091 – 15</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Deuteronomy 30:10-14 / Psalm 69 / Colossians 1:15-20 / Luke 10:25-37</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Godly Perspective</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Part of my ministry—actually it’s a huge part of living a Christian faith—is <i>listening </i>to people. One thing I hear again and again is the struggle of personal faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is a basic understanding of what we as Christians believe. We say the Creed every week, and that’s wonderful. Even more people have some familiarity with John 3:16—<b>God so loved the world that gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life</b>. Yet, there is an ongoing struggle: <i>What does it means for </i></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i>me</i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i> in my world?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some people are always asking questions: Why? How? They tell me their mind never turns off. Sometimes they fight cynicism because the struggle seems so much bigger than any immediate answers. Other people deal with a seemingly endless assault of hard circumstances—relational, financial, physical, or emotional. Some people are continuously hit with all of these at the same time. So I hear painful questions: What is God trying to tell me? Why aren’t my prayers being answered? Does God care? Is God really there?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All of today’s readings converge to give a <i>perspective</i> on this mindset. To be honest, they do not answer these questions directly. God’s way is not to give a detailed answer to our particular issues; instead (and I use this word again), God gives us a <i>perspective</i> that enables us to live in faith. And with that, I remind all of us that if we could “see” everything clearly, it would not be faith (Romans 8:24)—and as Scripture tells us, without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We need <i>godly perspective</i>….</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A good place to start is to remember that no one who struggles deeply with personal faith is alone. It is common to humanity to have critical questions which go to the core of one’s being. It is even more common to face circumstances that strike at the heart of life’s meaning and purpose (that is the effect of the original disobedience). If you have deep questions…. if you have been hit with suffocating circumstances…. you are not alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One way we know this is because Moses—and this was <i>ca</i>. 4000 years ago—was facing people who were looking for answers. It was near the end of their 40-year wilderness wanderings. The Israelites had gone through hard times. The first generation of the Exodus pilgrims had died and their children, now adults, wondered if the God who had given their parents those promises years before was going to do what he had said. Their thoughts had turned in on themselves and they were asking: “What do we need to do to get God’s attention?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Moses gives a short answer: Listen to God and obey. But how do we listen to God? It’s as if Moses reads their minds (actually, God is speaking through Moses): You don’t have to go on a big pilgrimage. You don’t have to go anywhere. What God is saying<b> is something very near to you…. </b>There are mistaken ideas and insidious lies loose in our world that say God is too remote and that issues are too complicated. NO! <i>God is here</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This has been powerfully presented to us in the Incarnation. When God took on a fully human form it was beyond what even Moses could have perceived. Jesus Christ is <i>God with us</i>. That is what St Paul tells the Colossians: <b>Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God…. in him all things hold together</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The modern world has become so “scientific” that we don’t look beyond the (amazing) natural laws and explanations of how the universe works. But beyond and behind and underneath all the natural laws which we mistakingly think explains everything is the One who created it all. The sustaining presence of God is as close as the sunrise each day. God is as close as each beat of our hearts. God is in control. God is at work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sometimes we get so absorbed in our personal issues and problems that we lose perspective. Hold your open hand up to your nose. All you can see is the palm of your hand. Yet on the other side of your hand is the larger world. Your hand doesn’t make the world go away; it just blocks you from seeing it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Our issues and problems can do that to us. Big questions and hard circumstances can come so close that they obliterate the larger reality from our perspective. God is here. God is in control. God is at work. Our loss of perspective doesn’t stop God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So how do we keep perspective? That’s the Gospel. The man asked Jesus: <b>What must I do to inherit eternal life?</b> Jesus answered with a question that takes us back to what Moses told the people: <b>Heed the voice of the Lord your God and keep his commandments….</b> What does God command? <b><i>Love</i></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We make this command difficult. We are the ones who, like the man in the Gospel story, want to raise complicating questions that focus on ourselves. Above and beyond all other questions and issues there is one way to be close to God: to love as he wants us to love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You see, God is already close to us. We are immersed in God every second of every day. There is no place where he is not! Moses told the people that the command <b>is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts</b>. We confess the Creed with our mouths and are enlivened in baptism. So, if God is close to us, what is the problem?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>It’s whether we truly want to be close to God! </i>Beyond our questions…. beyond our issues…. even beyond hard circumstances and pain…. Do I want to be close to God above and beyond everything else?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">If so, we open our hearts. Moses told the people, and the law scholar admitted to Jesus, <b>all your heart.</b> We open our hearts to love God. We open our hearts to love others. We open our hearts so that we can see beyond the hand in front of our face. Then we find that God is here, and his Name is Love. It is out of that <i>godly perspective</i> that we can live and love.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-60324936305031386542019-06-23T13:24:00.000-04:002019-06-23T13:24:11.166-04:00The Way to Life<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">June 23, 2019 –– <i>Corpus Christi</i> Sunday </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The Way to Life</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For over 50 years I was rooted in a Christian tradition that emphasized “come to Jesus.” I based my life and my vocation on the core doctrines which proclaim Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Son of God who died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead to give us eternal life. I understood the basics of what Jesus has done <i>for</i> us; it was only after decades of pastoral ministry that I began to see something much deeper––that what Jesus did for us is something he does <i>in </i>us, and that he comes into us in the the simple and yet most profound way of the Eucharist. And with that, I found something else: The Catholic Church is a seamless garment of Christian Truth which pulls its members into the very life of Christ. This is woven into all we do as Catholics, but it is so standard and pervasive that many miss it because of its familiarity (and then, in our human weakness, it can become “mechanical”). I want to remind us, in a bit overview, of what brings us to the summit of the Church’s life: the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When God first created humans <b>in his image</b> (Genesis 1:27) he did two things: <b>the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being</b> (Genesis 2:7). In other words, God gave humans a physical body and a life based in Divine Spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When our human parents responded “poorly” (to put it mildly!) to the privilege of choice––when they disobeyed God––their spiritual life died. Without God’s Spirit indwelling us, we are like animals without instinct. We do foolish and harmful things to ourselves and others. That is not what God intended, so still honoring the esteem of creating us <b>in his image</b>, God set out to win us back. That is one way to understand the ongoing intricacies of the biblical story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Everything that God intends for us is incapsulated in the life of the God-Man Jesus.</i> In Jesus, the Incarnation is the permanent unification of the Spirit of God with the human body. That is what Christmas is all about. It is the beginning of the story of what it truly means to be a godly human being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then the details get played out. When Jesus is on the verge of high visibility through his public ministry––as he begins to draw explicit attention as a truly spiritual man––he goes through a developing series of experiences which the Church came to understand as being significant for human reconciliation with God. <i>We can enter into the life of Jesus through the Church’s liturgies</i>. From the Incarnation at Christmas and progressing to the Real Presence of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we are being pulled into the life of Jesus so that God’s Life can be in us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In his baptism, Jesus is identifying every human’s basic need of the indwelling Spirit. As Jesus is baptized, he made the waters of baptism the beginning source of God’s Life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Immediately following his baptism, Jesus was tempted. Once again the privilege of choice was being offered to a man who was totally possessed by the Spirit of God. But unlike <b>the first man</b> (see 1Corinthians 15:45), <b>Adam</b> (see also Romans 5:12–17), we find in Jesus <b>one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin</b> (Hebrews 4:15). So it <i>is</i> possible to live in a human body and say no to sin. It <i>is</i> possible to live in a human body and please God. It <i>is</i> possible be human and be holy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But in a world where so many people still want to please themselves instead of God, holy people are often mistreated. The more Jesus taught and modeled a life full of God’s Spirit, the more a growing animosity wanted to get rid of someone who put a spotlight on the ugliness of a self-obsessed humanity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus we see the ultimate result of rejecting God. Rebelling against God always leads to hatefulness and pain and death. When Jesus suffered and died, he was taking upon himself the result of all human rebellion against God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It can often seem that evil is stronger than good. It can feel as though hate is more powerful than love. We can begin to think that in a world where so many things go wrong, God won’t really do anything to change it. That misses the whole point. God’s way is not to lash out (but he does allow the repercussions of sin to bear its deadly fruit in the world and in our lives). God’s way is to win us back. God is working for the long-term. We are too easily obsessed with <i>now</i>. We spend our chips trying to be happy; God is at work to make us holy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">After a rebellious world had done its worst to the Son of God––dead and in the grave, Jesus came back from the dead––in his body––never to die again. That is why the Church is all about Easter. Our biggest enemy has been defeated by a man in a human body like ours. As we follow Jesus in baptism and trusting God in our temptations, and as we follow Jesus in allowing all that is not pleasing to God to go the Cross so that we die to whatever blocks God’s Spirit in our lives, then we have every reason to believe that we will follow Jesus in Resurrection. Like Jesus, our bodies will be raised up never to die again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But it doesn’t stop there. Forty days after his Resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven. This can be perplexing, but understanding the physiology of the Ascension is not the point. There is another “dimension” that is all around us but invisible and usually hidden from our natural senses. The huge point is this: Jesus, in his human body, already has an eternal existence in a dimension we call “heaven,” and as surely as we share a common humanity with Jesus, Jesus leads all who follow him from the Cross to Resurrected Life and then to a dimension of Eternal Life––in our bodies––that we cannot begin to comprehend. Then, to bring it to fullness for all God’s people, Pentecost released <b>the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead</b> (Romans 8:11) to all <b>who receive him</b> (John 1:12).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So how do we follow Jesus into all these wonders? God has put a desire in every human heart for what is right and beautiful and good. When that desire is embraced and not rejected we are beginning to follow Jesus. And “following Jesus” is not left to our own effort and understanding; Jesus has given us the Church to guide us in Truth and show us the way. Jesus has given the Church access to the significant events in his life so that <i>the power of what Jesus went through in his human body is passed on to us through the Holy Spirit. This is one way to understand the Sacraments.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When we come into the Church, we enter into the very <i>Life</i> of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Liturgy is a celebration of the presence of the living Christ among us. The Liturgy is a connection to that dimension where Christ has already gone. Liturgy expands <i>NOW</i> so that in the present moment, and especially in the Eucharistic Presence of our Lord, “the past becomes a present presence that opens a new future” (George Weigel, “Eastern Catholic Churches and the Universal Church” in <i>First Things</i>, 6/6/19). The Church offers a powerful reminder that “the way to God passes through things that can be seen and touched.” Jesus came in a body; he comes to us now again and again in his Body.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The very Presence of our Lord is with us in the Eucharist. We are not alone. Even more, Jesus gives himself to us as Heavenly Food, strengthening us for the journey and making all that he has done for us <i>real and present right now!</i> Believe… take…. eat…. worship…. and <i>LIVE</i>.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-10700759355635048122019-05-26T12:49:00.003-04:002019-05-26T12:49:43.187-04:00The Path of Knowing God<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">May 26, 2019: Sixth Sunday of Easter</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Acts 15:1–2, 22–29 / Psalm 67 / Revelation 21:1-–14, 22–23 / John 14:23–29</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The Path of Knowing God</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of the most famous quotes by St Augustine comes early in <i>Confessions</i>, his spiritual memoir: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Around the world and throughout time, the whole human race has a record of seeking God. As Christians we know why: There is a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts––we are the result of special creation in the image of God. We should also understand why it is hard for humans to perceive God––as Paul wrote to the Romans, <b>they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened</b> (Romans 1:21).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But the love of God that created us continues in a love that does not leave us abandoned to find God by ourselves; God comes to us. Just as God created us in love, he comes to us fully human and fully God as Jesus of Nazareth. As Jesus told Philip earlier in the chapter of today’s Gospel, <b>Whoever has seen me has seen the Father</b> (John 14:9).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet Jesus is no longer here literally in his physical body. We can’t go to Israel and see him. As he told the disciples, <b>I am going to my Father….</b> Having died for our sins and rising from the dead to secure our eternal life, he invites those who believe: <b>follow me</b>. One way we follow Jesus is a phrase in today’s Gospel: <b>keep my word</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This invitation takes us from mere history and doctrine to something that fills the empty place in our hearts: <b>Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him</b>. <i>God comes to us through Jesus and lives in our hearts!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the Good News of Christian Faith. And it seems that with this, everyone should be “fixed” and life should be easy. Jesus even says, <b>Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you</b>. What happened? Our world is not at peace, and even Christians do not live in peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One problem is that we have taken this too personally. “Personal” too easily becomes “self-focused.” If we try to live a Christian life with a “just me and Jesus” formula, we get into trouble. By ourselves we often get things wrong. While Christian Faith is indeed personal, it is not individualistic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When we come to Jesus, we come into his Body. It’s called the Church. Collectively, we have a wisdom that goes beyond our individual selves. Just as Jesus is Incarnate––fully human and fully God, the Church is also incarnate. The Church is indeed the composite of the people who belong to Jesus, but it is also a fusion with the Holy Spirit. God has provided a spiritual wisdom that goes beyond our individual abilities. This is one reason we have the Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We should not be surprised by questions and frustrations. From the beginning those who follow Jesus have needed to find a common way through the Church. The early Christian community had barely gotten started before it was faced with a huge question: what about people who are not Jewish who want to follow Jesus? This was crucial, and Jesus had not left a specific instruction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But God had come to dwell in those who believed and wanted to follow, and as the assembled leadership met they came to a solution. This was the beginning the Apostolic Rule of Faith and the developing authority of the Church. Through this we see that God is at work to complete the circle that takes us back to the basic issue: how can I best fill that “God-shaped hole” in my heart?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have shared more about my journey from Evangelical to Catholic than I have about my early commitment to Jesus. In my early teens I was in rebellion against God. I had bought into the hellish lie that the Church was something invented by old people to keep young people from having fun. I was profane and blasphemous. My focus was on the world’s triad of idols: money, sex, and power. I didn’t know to get any of them, but they were my goal. I was all about “me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But deep down I did not like myself, and decent kids who were my peers didn’t seem to like me very much, either. One Sunday night when I was fifteen I was in church (very much against my will, but my dad had a way of keeping authority!). As usual, I was tuned out––but as the service was ending that night the Holy Spirit flooded me with a picture of myself before God. I was worse than the Laodiceans in the book of Revelation: <b>wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked</b> (3:17). With that I saw that the One alternative was what God had done through Jesus Christ. My heart melted. I gave myself unconditionally to the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I was changed. I knew then––and know now––that apart from Jesus I am helpless and hopeless. Compared to having the life of Jesus, nothing else matters. And while my journey has had its ups and downs, I have not turned away from Jesus being my focus in what is now over fifty-something years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One thing that has kept me on course and brought me to today is the Church. Just as we’re lost without Jesus, we need the Church to help us find and follow Jesus faithfully. The Apostolic Tradition takes us through the Holy Spirit to Jesus, and Jesus leads us to all the fullness of God because, as he said, <b>I and the Father are one</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Do you have questions? Do you sometimes (or even often) feel frustrated? Be sure you are listening to the Church in a way that keeps the focus on Jesus. Always cultivate that hunger for God which inhabits every human heart––a hunger that prays: <i>You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.</i> Give yourself unreservedly to Jesus. Jesus has promised us his peace. His desire is to live in our hearts. Trust the graces he has given to help us through his Church. This will fill that “God-shaped hole” in your heart with the fulness of God.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-39031254380845222292019-05-05T12:20:00.004-04:002019-05-05T12:20:21.320-04:00Feed My Sheep<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">May 5, 2019 –– Third Sunday in Easter</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Acts 5:27–32 / Revelation 5:11–14 / John 21:1–19</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Feed My Sheep</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is a mental and even spiritual fog permeating our society. Social media flood us with divisive issues and poorly-formed opinions. Too many people speak more quickly and more often than they listen. Huge things are at stake: issues that touch our safety and security; others go to the core of the definition and meaning of human life. We find ourselves debating what is right or wrong, good or bad, false or true. Who are we to listen to? Who are we to trust? Today’s Scripture readings help answer these questions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We can start with Peter. Peter’s prominence among the apostles is obvious. As the book of Acts unfolds, Peter is the spokesman. Peter is the one whose presence verifies the gift of the Spirit as the Faith extends from Jerusalem to Samaria and then to the Gentiles just as Jesus said. The Church is, indeed, being established by Peter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Today’s Gospel gives the story of Jesus affirming Peter three times, surely for each of Peter’s three denials. For each time that Peter had proclaimed “I don’t know the man,” Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” And each time that Peter humbly and tenderly tells Jesus, “you know that I love you,” Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There are numerous biblical themes converging here. Earlier in John’s Gospel Jesus refers to those who follow him as his “sheep”: <b>My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me</b> (10:27).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When we embrace our baptism––when we own the name of “Christian”––we are among those Jesus calls “my sheep.” So returning to my opening observations and questions, how are <i>we</i> to hear the voice of Jesus? As the issues of our world whirl around us with a cacophony of voices trying to tell us to think this…. do that…. be for something or against something, we need to be able to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. How do we recognize Jesus’ voice? Many people in our world claim to speak for Jesus, and they often totally disagree with each other. Who are we to trust?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus makes it clear. He calls Peter and gives him the opportunity to express his heart: “Do you love me?” And when Peter declares his love Jesus tells Peter, “Feed my sheep.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We see Peter doing this in the Acts reading. He and the other apostles are preaching Jesus. The very ones who arrested Jesus and had him put to death now arrest Peter and the others. They are blunt: “Quit doing this.” They threaten the apostles, but Peter loves Jesus. He does not back down: <b>We must obey God rather than men.</b> Peter is feeding the sheep. He is declaring what is true. He is modeling how the sheep are to follow the Good Shepherd. It’s not what human authorities say. It’s not what popular opinion thinks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus had another word for the sheep: <b>If you love me, keep my commandments </b>(Jn 14:15). How do we know what Jesus commands? How do we know what to obey? For almost 2000 years the Rule of Faith initiated and confirmed by Peter and the other Apostles has formed and guided Catholic belief and practice. Above all the other voices trying to get our attention for the many issues inundating our world, we are called to listen to the teachings that flow from the Petrine Office. When the voice of the 2000-year-old Church instructs us, warns us, and seeks to guide us, it is living out this calling Jesus initiated with Peter: <b>Feed my sheep</b>. When we listen to the established teaching of the Church and obey it, we show that we are sheep who hear the Shepherd’s voice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus told Peter, <b>Feed my sheep.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Peter declared boldly: <b>We must obey God rather than men.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus tells all of us, <b>If you love me, keep my commandments.</b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">These are inseparably connected. Jesus is still asking, “Do you love me?” In our world of competing voices, we need to listen to him. <i>When the Church speaks, Peter is feeding the sheep!</i></span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-52373091822793913932019-03-10T10:28:00.000-04:002019-03-10T10:28:19.706-04:00All The Good<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">March 10, 2019 –– 1st Sunday of Lent</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Deuteronomy 26:4–10 / Psalm 91 / Romans 10:8–13 / Luke 4:1–13</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>All The Good</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">How did you get here today?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You might describe your vehicle and the exact route from your home to the church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You might think through all the steps you took to dress and get ready for church today. (I am always amazed at parents who get here on time with several small children!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We could expand our perspective to include the many and various influences which motivate us to be in church. Some of us are fortunate enough to have had faithful parents who nurtured us in the Faith, and our presence in church is a continuous flow from childhood. Some have been raised in the church and then took a conspicuous detour, but now the connection has been restored. Some were raised in what be called a “neutral” environment––not religious, but not antagonistic––and along the way “faith happened.” Still others have come from broken, abusive, and hostile backgrounds, but the love of Jesus broke through and now church is “home.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Regardless of how we came to be here, belonging to Christ and his Church is a grace story of God’s goodness. And to begin to comprehend the extent of that, we have to go far beyond our personal stories. What God is doing in each of us individually is just a small part of what God is doing and has been doing for thousands of years of human history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One facet is in our first reading: <b>my father was a wandering Aramean….</b> Long before you and I were a projected thought (other than in the eternal mind of God), the Lord was calling and building a people who distinctively belonged to him. Hundreds––thousands––of years ago God was doing something special in the life of a man who we know as Abraham, and what God was doing in Abraham would have long-term effect stretching all the way to today into your life and mine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet the stories of God’s people include some awful things. The first reading recalls <b>affliction</b> and <b>toil</b> and <b>oppression</b>. That is why God’s grace and goodness are so incredible. The story of God’s goodness is light breaking into darkness and hope rising out of oppression and death. Over and over there is a reality expressed by the Psalm’s antiphon: <i>Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble</i>. This is affirmed in something Jesus told his first disciples: <b>In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world</b> (John16:33).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We see one way that Jesus overcame the world in today’s Gospel. In his Temptation Jesus faced the most basic human desires which can be twisted in a way that puts our desires above God and blocks his grace. Jesus would not bow to the traps of power, pride, and even physical hunger. As the book of Hebrews says: <b>tempted in all points as we are, but without sin</b>. Even in our temptations we see that in Jesus we have a Savior. Lent is all about learning to trust a loving Father. That’s what Jesus did in the desert in his own personal “Lent.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So, how did you get here today? The undergirding and overwhelming answer is that the goodness of the Lord has brought you to this place. It is not merely the fact of your physical presence in church (although that is good). It is Goodness that provides comfortable homes and ample food and clothing. It is Goodness that we have convenient vehicles to take us where we go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Even more, the disposition of your heart that moved you to be here today is God’s goodness at work. Goodness is the awareness you have of God when you are moved to pray and serve and give. Goodness is the awareness of God that comes when you are tempted and know you need to turn away. Goodness is even the awareness of God that is there when you have disobeyed and you sense that inner voice to turn and put things right. Wherever we go, we’re the child of <b>a wandering Aramean</b> who learned to trust God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is because we can go anywhere in life except outside of God’s embrace. At its core, Christian Faith is embracing the reality that God is here and he has done everything for us to make things right through his Son’s entrance into our world. Did you pay attention to the second reading?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>What does Scripture say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart––that is, the word of faith that we preach––for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The message that was birthed at Christmas continues into the struggles of Lent: <i>God is with us. </i>As we leave this place today, God is with us. As we go into the coming week with all of its demands––even stresses and fears, God is with us. Wherever we go, God is with us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And because God is with us, we are immersed in goodness. Sometimes it is so obvious. Sometimes we have to look for it. But we are here today because of God’s goodness, and that Goodness with follow us into a future that is beyond our imagination.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-12016691763908296552019-02-24T10:31:00.000-05:002019-02-25T12:29:28.590-05:00A Hard Teaching From Jesus<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">February 24, 2019 –– 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1 Samuel 26:2, 7–9,12–13, 222–23 / Psalm 103 / 1 Corinthians 15:45–49 / Luke 6:27–38</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>A Hard Teaching From Jesus</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Does Jesus actually mean what he says? Jesus said some hard things. In saying <b>love your enemies</b> and <b>bless those who curse you</b> and <b>offer the other cheek</b> we certainly have words coming from Jesus that go against the grain. Did Jesus intend this to be taken literally or was he speaking in hyperbole to get effect?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There are those who understand these words literally as a basis for total pacifism. I traveled this road earlier in my spiritual journey, but I do not think Jesus is negating the use of force for social order in the world at large. The Church does not teach unqualified pacifism. There is an argument that Jesus was using figurative language here, but if Jesus was using figurative language we still need to know what he meant. He surely meant <i>something</i>! One problem with taking Jesus figuratively is that Jesus is not taken seriously at all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus is addressing his disciples here, and he is at least speaking to the way his followers should respond in their personal relationships. How do we handle it when others do bad things to us? Jesus' answer can be summed up in one word: <b>love</b>. We use this word “love” in a multitude of ways. No, we do not love our enemies with the same kind of love as our nearest and dearest family and friends, but we can <i>choose</i> to seek any person's good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In this context, the admonition to love our enemy stands in direct contrast to the desire for personal retaliation. We inherently want to “get back” at those who harm or even threaten us. This was Abishai’s counsel to David––to “get” Saul while he could: <b>let me nail him to the ground…</b> God has always been concerned with retaliation among his people. In the Old Testament God gave laws limiting retaliation. When he told Israel <b>An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth</b>, it was a divine limitation on the vengeance that says “if you break one of my teeth, I’ll smash all of yours!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As if to emphasize that he expects people committed to his kingdom to respond differently than others, Jesus contrasts the behavior of “sinners" (this word is used in the context of those not concerned with what God wants). Jesus says that any person can love the people who love back. Most will lend if they expect to be repaid. But to love people who hurt you, and to give to people who not only are not able to repay but who may not seem to deserve it anyway, and to forgive without getting nasty about it, is to show that we really believe what Jesus says. When we choose to respond in love and forgiveness, and to give even when it hurts us, we are saying that <i>nothing in this life is more important than showing Jesus’ kind of love</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe your neighbor has a cat that seems always to be messing up your flower bed. <i>How you respond</i> to the neighbor is the issue Jesus is addressing. Did someone mistreat you maybe five weeks or five months or even five years ago and you can’t let it go?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The big issue here is whether anything in this life is more important to us than seeking to obey and be like Jesus. The desire to retaliate or the tendency to withdraw and sulk is part of everyone of us. Jesus isn't denying that; he wants to correct it and heal our souls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There is a story from the gas shortage back in the early 70’s that deserves classic status. It happened in California where the population is dense and the lines were long. As one man sat waiting and waiting, a woman pulled in and cut in a small space in front of him. He was angry and got out of his car and walked up to the window of the woman's car. She locked her doors and just smiled at him. So he went back to his car and took off the gas cap which had a lock on it. He put it on her car, locked the gas cap, and drove off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We instinctively think: the woman got what she deserved. But what if God gave us what <i>we</i> deserve? Maybe we think it's easy for God to forgive. We can feel so strongly whatever injustice has been done to us. But if we think it is easy for God to forgive we need to get alone and think about Jesus on the cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I know this is hard. It’s easy to think, "But that's not normal!" and I admit, "That's right!" But that is what the Christian life is all about––anyone can be "normal" according the world's definition. It doesn't take the love of Jesus to hit back or hold a grudge; it takes grace not to. And that's what Christianity is––being people who understand the need for God's grace, and being open to grace for ourselves so that we become channels of grace to others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Christians, our standard is God himself. Our calling is to respond to our enemies the way God responds to his. Paul tells the Romans: <b>God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners</b> [v10--God's enemies], <b>Christ died for us</b> (5:8). Jesus says this in the Gospel reading: <b>...the Most High / is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful</b>. We cannot lower the standard that Jesus sets and be faithful; what we can do is ask for the grace to live this way and repent of our failures every week if that’s what it takes. This is how to be faithful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If you are holding a grudge today, if you are withholding forgiveness, I ask you to decide right now to pray to let it go. If you have withdrawn from a person because of something he said or did, let it go. If he didn't mean to hurt you, why let it stand in the way? If someone did mean to hurt you, then forgive him and leave it with God. Don’t let someone else's sin ruin your life as well!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">As we learn to absorb the personal blows that come our way, we learn more and more what it means to know and follow Jesus. When we give ourselves to Jesus, it affects everything we are and do. </span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4392317921661414151.post-46055689129465706952019-02-03T10:41:00.003-05:002019-02-04T11:54:49.279-05:00A Call For Change<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">February 3, 2019 –– 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jeremiah 1:4–5, 17–19 / Psalm 71 / 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 / Luke 4:21–30</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>A Call For Change</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Change is hard. We are mostly creatures of habit. We get accustomed to traditional expectations, familiar friends, and particular routines in our own lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Perhaps change is the very hardest when it is something that threatens the essence of the way we see ourselves<b> </b>It’s really hard when we realize that the highest values we hold have lost their place in the world at large. That's one way to see this incident of Jesus in his hometown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We know things about Jesus that his hometown did not know. We have the whole story in the Gospels. We have almost 2000 years of Christian Tradition. We know to expect the life and words of Jesus to be different and challenging because he was and is the Son of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So as we come to this story about Jesus in Nazareth, we have inside knowledge. The hometown people of Nazareth did not know what we now know. These are people who would have had well-defined expectations. As first-century Jews, they expected the Messiah to come some day and turn their fortunes around. Coming out of that was a bit of prejudice. God's promises were for <i>them</i> (and them alone)..</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Do you see the collision? There is Jesus with his mission from the Father as it came with the fresh life of the Holy Spirit. Here are people with their own expectations of what God is going to do, how he's going to do it, and who he will do it for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus read from Isaiah. It was a Scripture that triggered the hopes the people would have had. Jesus said he was the one to fulfill this prophecy. At first it seems they might believe him. They had never heard Scripture read like that before. And no wonder––</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman";">can you imagine what it must have been to hear the Living Word read the written Word?</span> But the doubt trickles in. "Isn't this Joseph's son?” they asked. Again, they didn’t know what we know. Jesus was not “Joseph’s son” in the way they assumed.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It's here we see something else about Jesus. He doesn't coddle unbelief. He is like an Old Testament prophet. Jeremiah described some of this in the first reading. We might think that Jesus would have responded with understanding. He could have said, "I know it must be hard for you to believe this, but,…" Instead Jesus responds in a way that he does again and again: he says something else to push the offense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">He told them two Old Testament stories that they knew very well. In the two stories, the one common theme is that God's grace came to the outsider instead of an Israelite. It was a Gentile woman and a Gentile man that received the prophet's blessing. Jesus was telling them that their attitudes were causing a repeat performance; he was bringing good news to those who could truly receive it––people like Gentile sinners. If they were not open to that, they were acting like those who persecuted the prophets of old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We need to recognize that it is easy for us to be like the townspeople in Nazareth––expecting God to fulfill all our hopes while at the same time trying to keep our own boundaries and prejudices. This cuts us off from people God loves––people God wants to love through us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We come to church each week, I hope, because we want to identify with God's good news. Jesus' words to the people of Nazareth tell us it is <i>not</i> good news if we can't get beyond our own expectations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus brings all people to a point of decision. He pushed the issue with his hometown people. He will push issues in our lives. And the big issue is simply this: are we going to be like Jesus, or like the people of Nazareth? How tightly do we hold to our own boundaries and insist on our own way?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This kind of change does not come easily, but change is what Jesus is after for all of us. He does not intend to leave any of us the way we are. We all need to be in that process of change that turns sinners into saints. Our calling is to be like Jesus and not like the people at Nazareth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">God is always asking us to change our minds about things that pad our self-interest. God is asking us to change our minds about who is worthy of our attention and our love. It may mean changing our expectations of what it means to be the Church. It will surely mean going against the prejudices that are accepted by the popular culture around us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Our culture has many wrong ideas, but there is one that needs to be front and center before us right now. As the attempted justification of late-term abortions swirls around, we need to know and proclaim (and vote): it is <i>never</i> okay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We are called to invite the Spirit that lived in Jesus to extend God's kingdom through what we believe and say and do. That is the way sinners are <i>changed</i> into saints.</span></div>
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David L. Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16724345231813836448noreply@blogger.com0